Potential amidst the drivel

Rating: 5/10 (15 April 2005)

I really, really wanted to like this movie. Shortly before it was released I was reading Mary Renault's Alexander books, and I was hoping the film would do justice to Alexander's life. It didn't.
What drove me crazy about this movie is that every once in a while I would see something I really liked, something that should have been cut out from the movie and pasted into a better one.
I liked what I saw of the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion, but at the same time I could almost hear the filmmakers whispering in the background, "We don't need to have them kiss, do we?" I had to sit through a creepy Alexander/Roxane sex scene but apparently Oliver Stone was afraid to have Alexander and Hephaistion kiss. (He claims that wasn't his reason. Frankly, I don't believe him.) It isn't as though men kissing is some incredibly daring venture. Merchant Ivory was doing it back in 1987.
I liked Val Kilmer as Philip, because he at least looked like he was having fun. I thought one of the early scenes of Alexander's childhood, when his drunken father enters the room unaware that his son is there, was well done...probably because it was directly out of Fire From Heaven.
In terms of visual imagery, it's a beautiful film to look at, Colin Farrell's godawful hair aside.
However, the things I liked weren't enough to make a good film. The Oedipal complex idea was fairly unsupported and campily overblown, and the accents were awful. (I heard Angelina Jolie's accent is supposed to be historically accurate, but it reminded me of a vampire anyway.) Alexander/Roxane literally scared me, and this is from a person who thinks Rosario Dawson is an incredibly sexy woman.
There's not much buildup or reasoning for the events that happen. They happen. There's some sort of melodramatic reaction to them. On to the next one, and we still don't know anything about the logic behind them, probably because Oliver Stone himself doesn't know the logic.
And as others have said, Anthony Hopkins and his long speeches were deadly boring.
If you don't have to spend much money to do so, see it once so you'll have a deeper appreciation for better films.