A Great Deception

Rating: 6/10 (24 October 2004)

3200 years ago, the powerful king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) dominates all the Greek kingdoms except Troy. While visiting Sparta, the Prince of Troy Paris (Orlando Bloom) and the wife of the king of Sparta Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), Helen (Diane Kruger), fall in love with each other, and Paris convinces her to leave her husband. This pretext was exactly what Agamemnon need to invade Troy, but he is not supported by the great warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt). An incident between Achilles' cousin and the Prince of Troy Hector (Eric Bana) makes Achilles fight side by side with Agamemnon's army. Yesterday I saw 'Troy', an adaptation of Homer's Iliad, expecting to watch a great epic movie. I found only a slightly above average movie with a huge budget. There are many parts that do not work in this film. The first one are the very silly and imbecile dialogs. I do not know how many time I heard words like 'never forget' and 'honor' along 163 minutes. The next weak point is the selection of the cast: Brad Pitt keeps the same doll face in dramatic, funny, painful or what ever situation. It is amazing how this guy is not able to act, just expose his silicone face to the feminine audiences. The histrionic Brian Cox is another bad choice, horrible in the role of Agamemnon. Even Peter O' Toole has an affected performance, looking like a gay instead of a powerful king. Last but not the least, with the advent of the use of computer for battle scenes, the exaggeration rules most of the present high budget films. I need to see 'Ben-Hur' again to recall how an excellent epic movie must be. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): 'Tróia' ('Troy')