It’s really hard to care about Napoleon or anything he does when he has no redeeming qualities. He’s selfish, egotistical, and pursues unhealthy relationships with broken people. A main character you don’t want to root for is going to be the biggest flaw of any film.
Phoenix has turned in some good performances in the past, but this one is disappointingly flat. Wasn’t Napoleon a military genius? Couldn’t we learn a little something about his innovations? Instead, Phoenix’s Napoleon is little more than a brooding man staring off into the distance with fingers in his ears. While perhaps a subpar script is to blame, he’s got nothing terribly interesting or captivating to say. And Phoenix once again hurts one of his performances with what seems to be a recurring habit of poor diction, reducing the dialogue in many of his scenes to a mumble.
It’s a disappointing not to hear even a hint of a French accent for Phoenix or any of the other French characters. I know that native English speakers using fake accents can be risky, with any imperfections opening up actors to vicious criticism, but I feel like it really could have helped add some authenticity to this quintessential European story.
Sets and costumes are impressive, probably the most impressive thing about this film. Battle scenes are huge in scale and rival Braveheart in graphic violence, good to see Scott didn’t pull any punches there. But not showing Napoleon posing for a portrait with his hand tucked into his vest was a missed opportunity for a historical snicker.
A few plot points that left me scratching my head… After Napoleon’s return from Elba, is he really able to convince a group of soldiers with guns pointed at his head to accept and rejoin him by simply saying that he missed them? It’s odd to me that, given the brutality of the time, the British chose to exile Napoleon again and not execute him after his loss at Waterloo. Also, given that one of the driving plot points was Napoleon’s desire to produce a rightful heir, how come there is no mention, not even in the title cards at the end, of what the future holds for Napoleon’s young son? Lame to have to resort to Wikipedia to find out this information after the movie was over.
I respect Ridley Scott’s reputation and body of work, but in my opinion he often shoots very high and just as often misses the mark.
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