Flip a coin

Rating: 5/10 (6 September 2008)

Director Oliver Stone's film version of the life of Alexander the Great, came out to dismal reviews and worse box office. There were controversies over its portrayal of the bisexuality of its protagonist, as well as the poor screenplay, stilted dialogue, and many other things. We get the requisite battles, the CGI armies of huge hordes, but Stone's camera work is not what it was a decade or more ago. There is very little that sets this apart as an Oliver Stone film. It's a generic pseudo-epic that makes the great epics, like Spartacus, or Lawrence Of Arabia, seem that much greater. I guess there's just a simple lack of passion in the whole endeavor. What saves the film from being total trash, however, is Val Kilmer's relationship with Alexander- mostly as a boy (Connor Paolo), but also with the older Farrell. Kilmer's best moment comes when he demands buying a horse at half price if Alexander can tame it. The son, of course, tames it, in generic rite of passage form, but the key that makes this otherwise trite scene work is how Philip will to risk his son's life merely for a bargain. It shows why the two men will bond, but never be truly close. In short, Alexander fails not for many of the reasons the major critics roasted it (although to be fair, I don't know just how different the filmic and DVD versions are) but because it has too much breadth, and not enough depth. Accordingly- while not terrible, it's not great. Flip a coin over whether it's passable and either way you're probably right.