complex, passionate masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2004)

This is one of those movies that people will either love or hate. People expecting the Oliver Stone of "Natural Born Killers" will hate this film. People without patience or a certain level of intelligence will hate this film.
"Alexander" is an intelligent, complicated epic about a very complicated man. And Stone does great justice to the topic. The plot is subtle and intriguing. The visuals are enchanting; the battle scenes are epic and ferocious. The passionate love story between Alexander and Hephaistion - played wonderfully by Jared Leto - was humane and romantic (oh, and homophobes will be quite alarmed by the dignity and acceptance afforded same-sex relationships in this film). The cast worked surprisingly well together.
Sure, there are times when the film becomes a little pretentious - it is an Oliver Stone film, after all. And it is very long, being a full three hours; we could have used an intermission.
But those are minor quibbles to what is otherwise one of the best movies of the year.