Year:  2023

Director:  Ridley Scott

Rated:  MA

Release:  23 November 2023

Distributor: Sony/Apple TV+

Running time: 158 minutes

Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Ben Miles, Matthew Needham, John Hollingworth, Rupert Everett

Intro:
… a deeply weird and inconsistent film, veering from genuinely funny to bleak and bloody at a moment’s notice.

Biographies of famous but complicated historical figures are notoriously difficult to get right. Skew too reverential and you’re stuck with an inert hagiography, go too far the other way and you’re delivering a tedious manifesto. Striking that delicate balance proves ever elusive. That brings us to Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s latest historical epic, and a look at a man both accomplished and absurd, in a film that apes both of those characteristics for good and ill.

Napoleon is, naturally enough, the story of one Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix), an ambitious military man who, over time, conquers vast swaths of Europe and the world. However, director Ridley Scott and writer David Scarpa are less interested in showcasing the military prowess of ol’ mate Boney, and more keen to explore his relationship with Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) and the fact that he was a bit of a dickhead, to be honest. This is a film that portrays its titular character as an arrogant, thuggish boor, an egotistical chancer who talks a good game – and to be fair, fights a good battle – but has shockingly thin skin and a narcissistic temperament. This is a bloke who manages to successfully invade Egypt but then buggers off back home because he finds out his misso is having an affair. He’s also, in one of the film’s more inspired recurring visual gags, shown to be a selfish and perfunctory lover, like an overeager dog humping its owner’s leg. Mon dieu!

The idea of skewering an ego like Napoleon’s is actually a really solid one, but Ridley wants to have his Crème brûlée and eat it too. So, after watching Napoleon make an absolute arse of himself in his personal and political life, we then follow his impressive progress in various military campaigns. They’re certainly engaging and well shot, but they feel at odds with the more satirical elements. The fact that we never really feel like we know the man also doesn’t help either, an unfortunate result of a rather rushed first act.

Still, there’s some stuff to like here. Joaquin Phoenix is reliably excellent, even if the character’s motivations are on occasion a little obtuse, however it’s Vanessa Kirby who steals the show, portraying Josephine as a vampish sex kitten with an impressive intellect and a gift for strategy. The best moments of the film are when these two are together, and their friendship in the back end forms a much needed emotional core that the rest of the film lacks.

Napoleon is a deeply weird and inconsistent film, veering from genuinely funny to bleak and bloody at a moment’s notice. It’s odd too that this same director handled similar material much more deftly in the criminally underrated The Last Duel. Still, there are inspired satirical moments here and a few genuinely memorable battle scenes that will probably keep you engaged for the most part, even if you can’t help but wonder if a better version of the film was a couple of extra script drafts away. Imperfect but intriguing, Napoleon is more interesting than it is great, but it’s still worth a watch for history boffins and fans of laughing at the absurdity of rapacious egotists.

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