Review: Napoleon

Image courtesy of Apple TV.

"Napoleon" may not be a great Ridley Scott film, but it's a good one that features another reliably solid performance by Joaquin Phoenix, even if the character of the notorious French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is slightly underwritten. The film tries to cram a lot of information about Napoleon's life into its two-and-a-half hour running time - which occasionally gives the film the feel of one thing occurring after another without much time to develop its two lead characters - but the battle scenes are pretty spectacular and the picture has a surprisingly wry sense of humor.

The film opens, naturally, with the French Revolution in full swing and Marie Antoinette being carted off to the guillotine, where the gory remains of her death are on full display for the angry mob. Silently lurking among them is Napoleon, who is already plotting how his skills for tactical warfare will come in handy in the new France. Shortly after Robespierre's bloody reign of terror comes to an end, Napoleon finds himself on the ascent, especially after some military victories, most notably an intense and well shot portrayal of the Siege of Toulon.

The film is primarily focused on two things - the first is Napoleon's military prowess and how his ego not only allowed him to take risks that often led to great victories, but also would not allow him to ever seemingly admit that he was wrong. The second area of focus is Napoleon's relationship with his wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), a prisoner whose first husband was killed during the reign of terror.

On the one hand, Napoleon and Josephine's relationship is often beset with strife - he becomes enraged when he learns that she has a lover while he's away on a campaign in Egypt, prompting him to return home and risk being accused of desertion; in later scenes, he threatens divorce when she can't bear children and, therefore, leave no heir to throne. On the other, Napoleon clearly relies on his wife to give him strength. A scene beginning with him telling her that she's nothing without him ends with him saying the same to her at her command.

While the film occasionally stumbles in the dramatic scenes - Phoenix is good as always, although the script often plays as a series of scenes in which Napoleon is scowling through one scenario after another - it makes up ground in its overall sense of spectacle and impressive battle sequences. Along with the aforementioned Toulon siege, there's another horrifying sequence during which Napoleon and his forces trap Russian and Austrian soldiers on a frozen lake and drown them with cannonballs.

Scott has long been a master of the epic period piece, from his Oscar-winning "Gladiator" to the recently underrated "The Last Duel." "Napoleon" isn't quite on the level of those pictures, but could be compared to the solid - but more mid-tier - Scott pictures such as "Kingdom of Heaven" or "1492: Conquest of Paradise." 

It may not be among his best, but there's a decent amount to like here and there are a few surprises - for example, its occasionally offbeat humor (those sex scenes) and its overall anti-biopic feel. For a movie about a historical figure who looms so large, Scott's film doesn't always go places that you'd expect and that's a good thing.