Review of Troy (2004) by Heather S — 15 Dec 2011

Riding on the crest of Gladiator's wave, this historical epic attempts to emulate the scope, heart and power of that classic but fails to hit the mark. In terms of vision, Wolfgang Petersen throws a vast amount of money at the screen - the Trojan War is beautifully illustrated throughout, recreated quite brilliantly from a production standpoint, while many of the action sequences stage the epic conflict with epic, bloody brutality.

Where this falls down, crucially, is at the script & performance stage - at no point do you really end up rooting for anyone bar Eric Bana's Hector (the true hero of the film), with either unsympathetic portrayals or muddled character motivations.

Brad Pitt - usually great in whatever he does - fails to make Achilles more than a swaggering dick, Orlando Bloom plays to type as selfish, idiotic cockend Paris (who starts this whole thing because he decided he wanted to shag Diane Kruger's woefully underwritten Helen - their crucial romance being overlooked entirely, perhaps because Bloom & Kruger have zero chemistry), while Peter O'Toole seriously overacts as Priam, Julie Christie gets a one scene cameo, Brian Cox does little bar SHOUT A LOT (wasting his talent) while capable hands like Saffron Burrows, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson & Rose Byrne are thrown away in equally underwritten roles - and by the time we limp to a pretty bland finale, you won't really give a shit who lives or dies.

At over three hours, it's not the slog it could have been but it lacks the strong writing & great characterisation - despite how well it's made - to be a true historical classic.