Napoleon (2023) * *

Directed by:  Ridley Scott

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahir Rahim, Ludivine Sagnier

Ridley Scott's bloated Napoleon boasts lengthy battle scenes shot in either the dark or under gray skies which makes the action indiscernible and an unconvincing love story in between the fighting.  Joaquin Phoenix tries his damndest to humanize Napoleon Bonaparte, but the movie never convinces us why yet another epic about the French emperor needed to be made.  

Napoleon begins in 1789 at the start of the French Revolution.  Marie Antoinette and other royalty are guillotined and young Napoleon graduates to rank of brigadier general after recapturing a port from the British in a night battle where he can't see what's happening, except for Napoleon's horse being hit with a cannonball.   Soon after Napoleon gains fame as a military genius, he notices Josephine (Kirby), a widowed mother of two, and is enraptured.  Despite her past in which she took on many lovers, Napoleon wishes to marry her.   The two children, however, soon conspicuously disappear from the scene shortly after Napoleon marries Josephine.   

When Napoleon travels with his army to Egypt to liberate the nation from the British, Josephine takes on a lover.  The news travels to Egypt, and the humiliated Napoleon abandons his army to go home and deal with his unfaithful wife.  Napoleon is furious, but also loves Josephine and can't bring himself to leave her.  They soon enter into a quasi-BDSM relationship in which Josephine is at times dominant over the French general who soon declares himself emperor after a series of political moves which weren't exactly explained.  Napoleon soon grows more and more disturbed at his inability to produce an heir with Josephine.  He is soon able to use a surrogate to carry his child, another child who vanishes from the scene until much later in the film. 

Napoleon plods along as the emperor attempts to invade Russia and Austria while setting his sights on England.   There isn't much intrigue here and the relationship with Josephine doesn't establish itself as anything we should care about.   We aren't even a witness to tragedy even when Napoleon is exiled to Elba and later to St. Helena following his defeat at Waterloo.   He receives a nice island to live on and a stipend, so he shouldn't complain much.   Sure Josephine is not with him, but her passing occurs off-screen, not that we miss her.   The entire movie is a clumsy epic of nearly three hours which doesn't invite us into Napoleon's story in any insightful way.