So, apparently, Napoleon did surrender at Waterloo

Film review: Napoleon (15)

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Matthew Needham and Rupert Everett

Director: Ridley Scott Run time: Two hours, 38 minutes

So, ABBA we’re right all along. At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender.

He actually didn’t though. It’s just one of a number of historical inaccuracies from director Ridley Scott that have got historians all over the world worked up.

I actually don’t mind film makers playing with the truth if it helps the course of a riveting film - but in this case, the liberties taken by Scott seem unnecessary.

Would the film have been worse had Napoleon not witnessed the execution of Marie Antoinette, not charged into battle with his troops and not attacked the Egyptian pyramids? I think not.

A fictional meeting with The Duke of Wellington after Waterloo is a fiction I’ll allow Scott, but the casting of Vanessa Kirby as Empress Josephine irked me too.

Although Kirby, 35, plays the sexy, sultry but unsure Josephine with style and panache, she is meant to be six years her husband’s senior. Enter 49-year-old Joaquin Phoenix.

Now, I adore the American actor’s portrayal of dark, unconventional characters in movies such as The Joker or Beau is Afraid, but dare I say here he is almost miscast too?

I don’t see the great Napoleon as a stuttering, stumbling introvert and I think the portrayal is surprising audiences too. Not in a positive way though. And were the few sex scenes meant to make us laugh? I doubt it.

Having said all that, the story of the Emperor's rise and fall ambles along nicely enough with good performances from Rupert Everett as Arthur Wellesley and Matthew Needham as Lucien Bonaparte.

But it’s not the film it could have been and certainly won’t enhance anyone’ the reputation of anyone involved in it.

By Jeremy Ransome

Rating: 6/10