Age of Treason

Bryan Brown's Australian accent almost completely ruined this film for me. I could easily see this movie as being worthy of a viewing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 just for that alone. At the very least Brown could've taken speech lessons to hide his accent. At best, someone else should've been cast in the role. By using Brown, accent and all, only seems to suggest the makers of this movie really didn't care.

It was inevitable that someone should try to make a movie out of Lindsay Davis's Falco novel, which is one of the most original and witty comic-thriller series around currently, but it is a shame that this one fails so badly to convey the humourous detective-noir cynicism of Falco, or the rich supporting cast of characters that Davis employs so well. The visual effects are very good, and Rome looks great, and Brown - accent aside - is a suitable Falco, hardbitten, yet softhearted, but the plot is a mish-mash, drawing elements from the first three Davis novels, and combining them with a new subplot involving Falco owning a gladiator slave, who is forced into a duel to the death with his she-gladiator lover, and another involving a religious cult, resulting in a badly garbled story and a feeble ending. Davis's books would make an excellent series of films, or even a TV series, but the writers will need to do better than this.

I'm a huge fan of Lindsey Davis' mystery series set in First Century Rome, and was really disappointed by this filmic conflation of several of her early Marcus Didius Falco novels. The primary flaw, which spoils anything good in the movie (and there IS some good stuff here) is the woeful miscasting of Bryan Brown as Falco. I've loved Brown in several other movies, but he isn't the guy for this role. Most especially distressing is his lower-class Aussie accent, which is completely wrong for Falco -- he could never have won the heart of a Senator's daughter talking like this!

It's really a shame, because the Falco series deserves a treatment like what the BBC provided for "I, Claudius." It's that good.

I'm not a purist. I don't care if they film the Bible and it comes out as "Top Gun", as long as it is a good movie. This is a good movie and doesn't deserve the bum rap it gets. If it were made in the US we'd have had James Garner in the title role instead of Brian Brown, but who cares. This is a clever story that is well filmed and acted and keeps promising more. It delivers via solid performances and great twists in the plot. I'd kill to have this on DVD or VHS. Watch it on TV and see what you think. I think you'll bemoan the fact this wasn't made into a series or a TV series, at least. This should have been one of those cult films only the acting is probably too good.

I liked this movie, things occur rapidly, but never without cause. Even most of the "good" characters are complex, with different motives. Maybe this is a movie where the bad characters might need more work. The only unfortunate aspect of this movie are the references to our present culture. More things that fit into this "Age" would be appropriate.