Napoleon
This "Napoleon" is lacking the complex.
Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Sir Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” (now in theaters) presents its primary subject – famed/infamous French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (as played by Joaquin Phoenix, reuniting with his “Gladiator” director for the first time in over 20 years) – as a man who’s good on the battlefield and bad in the bedroom. He’s the cuck to end all cucks.
“Napoleon” has two things and only two things on its mind – 1.) Presenting its titular character as a military strategist par excellence and 2.) Depicting the relationship between its titular character and his unfaithful wife Josephine (a live-wire Vanessa Kirby). It’s fair to say this “Napoleon” is lacking the complex.
I liked “Napoleon” despite the fact it simultaneously feels both too long and too short at 158 minutes. Characters often appear and disappear with little rhyme or reason. (I’ll be curious to check out Scott’s director’s cut when it drops on Apple TV+.)
I caught “Napoleon” as the second half of a double bill alongside Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” (review here) and the movies have a surprising amount in common – both feature antiheroes who came from nothing striving for power by any means necessary, both feature antiheroes who struggle with sexual inadequacy, actor Paul Rhys appears in both pictures.
Scott can do battle sequences in his sleep having helmed the likes of “Gladiator,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Kingdom of Heaven” and “The Last Duel” and the ones here are most assuredly doozies. (No real surprise as the film was budgeted somewhere between $130 and 200 million, though hippophiles may give pause as there’s an awful lot of graphic equine devastation.) The carnage is capably captured by Scott’s frequent collaborator cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and cleanly cut by editors Claire Simpson (who chopped Scott’s past three flicks) and Sam Restivo.
The script by David Scarpa (he previously wrote Scott’s “All the Money in the World” and is penning his next project – “Gladiator 2”) is admittedly pretty sharp and gives Phoenix and Kirby meaty material to play opposite one another. The movie is also surprisingly funny (“Destiny has brought me this lamb chop!”). I responded to Kirby’s work more than I did Phoenix’s (she gets a greater number of notes to play and they’re almost always more interesting), but they’re both entertaining and are the best reasons to see the picture besides the bitchin’ battle sequences.
“Napoleon” in its theatrical iteration is a good film that should’ve been great. Here’s hoping the Apple TV+ director’s cut gives it a glow-up on par with the one “Kingdom of Heaven” received as that’s currently my favorite Scott flick.