Napoleon – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 38 minutes, Director – Ridley Scott

Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) rises through the French military on his way to becoming emperor with half his mind on Europe and the other on his wife Josephine (Vanessa Kirby).

It takes longer to settle into Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as Napoleon Bonaparte than it does Ridley Scott’s film about the French emperor. He gives little away about the thoughts and feelings of the figure who would go on to battle against most of Europe with a very dead-pan performance. His delivery as he acts out Napoleon’s early years, and initial interactions with wife Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) borders on the theatrical. As he rises through the ranks of the French military, his name spreading throughout France, the emotion begins to break through with a less exclusively dead-pan performance which doesn’t entirely fit in with the rest of the film around it.

Much of Ridley Scott’s latest historical drama focuses on the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine. One which often presents uncertain feelings as despite how much the pair claim to love each other there constantly seems to be a distance between them, a lack of connection to the half-faux coldness in their relationship. Even when on the battlefield in grand scale action sequences – truly pushing the strong visuals which the film boasts – his mind calls back to his wife, writing frequent letters; even if they barely get a response. With this being the focus it means that many events, particularly in relation to the titular emperor’s ascension to that very position in the first half of the film, feel like they’re somewhat skimmed through in order to better keep attention on the central relationship.

There’s a traditional quality to much of the drama at hand, most felt during more conversational and interrogation-like scenes. Scott appears to be making something in the vein of epics of years gone by, and the action sequences certainly try to capture the scope – with added bloodshed and violence. Visually the film is truly striking. The cinematography further brings to life the costume design and effects, especially during louder moments of cannon fire where Napoleon’s plans begin to come together. It’s these sequences; particularly when throwing us directly into the moment, or showing the action from an above wide-shot, which truly make the most of the big screen and have the most effect within the film.

Yet, when combined with the core drama things mix together to create a lengthy piece of work. At over two-and-a-half hours you feel the run-time as the third act draws on with core focus on battles over anything else. The cinematic angle still manages to come through, but the dramatic push isn’t as present as we see Phoenix’s character largely out on his own with his mind focusing on the enemy in front of him, bigging himself up with thoughts of how many battles he’s already won and how good his tactic are. It’s something which the film boasts, and demonstrates during some sequences with the help of the big screen. On most occasions we still come back to the relationship at hand, one which it takes some time to click with, as is the case with Phoenix’s performance, but with its traditional nature and cinematic push manages to keep interest in the guarded titular emperor.

It takes some time to settle into Phoenix’s performance of Napoleon, and his relationship with Kirby’s Josephine, but while overlong the traditional historical drama and grand scale action scenes create and hold interest when managing to work together.