rhiwderinray

Held so much promise and delivered a meaningless claptrap of mumbo jumbo that mercifully only certain writers can accomplish.

The acting was good with the lead role particularly believable. However that wasn't sufficient to make the story (if you can call it that) any more interesting, intelligible or coherent. I am never going to get back all those wasted hours i spent hoping that it would get better or make sense, but such is life. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. It is unfortunate that the BBC choose to waste money on such productions. It promised so much and yet utterly failed to deliver.

The actual events are truly horrific as are the injustices of the legal system. However, the actual drama itself is somewhat a mixed bag that is at times verging on the downright boring. What really annoyed me was the awful accent of Anna Maxwell-Martin normally a very capable actress with a voice that varies between bad Scottish and terrible Irish when she is supposed to be portraying an American. The series fails to provide any weight to the other victims Melissa and Paula. I don't know how faithful the series is to Delia Balmer but is appears to portray her as an extremely weird unsmpaphetic individual, even before here trauma and it could have been a bit more sympathetic. Acting is good but script could have been better.

If you want to find out about Napoleon, this movie sadly doesn't provide any answers. In truth you would be better off reading some books on the subject. The long, long, movie tries to cover too much ground in scant detail, so we never get to the man himself. What motivated him? Was his relationship with Josephine as petty as portrayed?

The movie spends a lot of time on Napoleon and yet as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix the character is so shallow as to be meaningless. The cruelty and indifference of Napoleon is glossed over, especially the Egyptian campaign and the Russian campaign. Then there is the burning ambition and arrogance of the man which is almost ignored.

The battle scenes, as one might expect, are excellent, although one could quibble about the lack of some detail, eg. The importance of Hougoumont Farm at Waterloo.

Cinematography is excellent, costumes excellent. Vanessa Kirby is great as Josephine, but Joaquin Phoenix falls short in the portrayal of one of history's infamous characters. Sadly 4/10 as a result. Could have been so much better.