Napoleon film review: Ridley Scott’s movie starring Joaquin Phoenix as the tyrannical French emperor is an epic that meets its Waterloo, writes BRIAN VINER

Judgement:

Many great filmmakers have tried to tackle the life of Napoleon Bonaparte but, like the little Corsican when he invaded Russia, have been thwarted by the scale of the undertaking.

Charlie Chaplin and Stanley Kubrick were both defeated, and in a sense so was Sir Ridley Scott.

There’s a lot to like about his latest epic. Some battle scenes are truly spectacular and Vanessa Kirby is ingeniously cast as the seductive Josephine, who is the second great love in Napoleon’s life after himself.

However, Joaquin Phoenix in the title role delivers an enigmatic, mumbling performance that still leaves you wondering, even after two and a half hours, what makes Napoleon tick. We understand that he is a military genius. We understand why he is crowned emperor.

Pictured: Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby starring in Napoleon

Joaquin Phoenix in the title role gives an enigmatic, mumbling performance that still leaves you wondering, even after two and a half hours, what exactly makes Napoleon tick

And scenes of strange psychosexual intensity reveal his fascination with his seductively sexy, decidedly naughty wife.

But beyond all that, he seems like a strangely empty vessel for David Scarpa’s uneven script, which mouths a few lines that made yesterday’s audience laugh out loud.

“You think you’re so great because you have boats,” he snaps at an envoy from England. Irritable children have been sent to the naughty step for less.

As parents of small children also know, you have to choose your battles. Scott chooses his with care. Napoleon masterminded more than sixty victories, but the most defining of his battles, especially on this side of the Channel (where we conspicuously have no train stations called Austerlitz), are the battles he lost.

His most crippling defeats came during his disastrous Russian campaign and especially in 1815 at Waterloo, which gets the full blood-and-thunder treatment in this film, with Rupert Everett as an exquisitely imperious Duke of Wellington.

The story begins in the aftermath of the French Revolution, with Napoleon, still an anonymous young soldier, standing in the crowd watching the execution of Queen Marie Antoinette. Shortly afterwards he demonstrated his tactical knowledge and personal courage by routing the English at the siege of Toulon.

He seems a strangely empty vessel for David Scarpa’s uneven script, which mouths a few lines that made yesterday’s audience laugh out loud

Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from Napoleon

There’s a lot to like about his latest epic. Some of the battle scenes are truly spectacular and Vanessa Kirby is astutely cast as the seductive Josephine, the second great love in Napoleon’s life after himself.

The story begins in the aftermath of the French Revolution, with Napoleon, still an anonymous young soldier, standing in the crowd watching the execution of Queen Marie Antoinette.

I don’t know how accurate it is that the English troops were quite impressed at the time of the siege of Toulon, but it sounds uncomfortably true

I don’t know how accurate it is that the English troops were quite drunk at the time of that attack, but it rings uncomfortably true.

Many other moments, on the other hand, are not. I expect some academics will put a firm Wellington boot on this film, no doubt spurred on by Scott’s comment: ‘When I have problems with historians I ask, ‘Excuse me mate, were you there?’ No? Then shut your mouth.’

That’s all well and good, but an English officer targeting Napoleon at Waterloo is another laughable moment, considering the French are about a quarter of a mile away and the long-range sniper rifle, as far as I know’ I know it has yet to be invented.

Yet cinematic epics and historical accuracy have rarely been beyond vague terms.

And Scott’s film at least explains Napoleon’s passion for Josephine, even if it seems fueled by little more than uncontrollable lust. This is further fueled when, during one of his distant campaigns, he learns that she has taken a lover.

In fact, she is still able to torment him from a distance even after the marriage is annulled due to her failure to provide him with an heir, no less than the Tsar of Russia.

But can it really be that a newspaper reported her promiscuity with the headline “Boney’s Old Bird Caught from the Nest Again”? If that’s a dramatic license, it should be revoked immediately.

This film gains over an hour of material when it’s moved to the small screen, so perhaps that will help us better understand the complexity of Napoleon’s character. But as epics go, Scott and Phoenix teamed up to much greater effect 23 years ago in the beautiful Gladiator.

Although marginal, this one gets a thumbs down for me.

Napoleon hits theaters on November 22 and can be seen later on Apple TV+