Tom Lynch

Oliver Stone's recent movies are almost instantly recognizable, shuffling his visual calling cards of eye-blink editing, multiple film stocks and formats and Robert Richardson's bright-light-living photography. What makes "Alexander"--his megamillion-dollar historical account of the great world conqueror--distinctive is how un-Stone-like it truly looks--no 150-cuts-a-minute; few disorienting jump cuts to close-ups of wild animals; no quicksilver shifts to black and white. Instead, he's made a true Hollywood picture, filled with enough blood, sex and inane dialogue to recall the days when Russell Crowe lectured in the Coliseum. Colin Farrell, a likeable and interesting choice, plays Alexander, Jared Leto his friend and occasional lover, Angelina Jolie as Alexander's mother, Val Kilmer his father, a character-less Rosario Dawson his wife, and, finally, Anthony Hopkins as Old Ptolemy, who serves as narrator for The Great's quest to control all of Asia and reach the end of the world. Leto and Kilmer turn in the film's most memorable performances: Leto as the king's emotionally wounded yet tirelessly dedicated servant and Kilmer as his righteous but tortured predecessor. Jolie, who plays Alexander's mother even though she's actually no more than a year Farrell's elder, offers a jagged, uneven turn as a woman just as confused by her son's bloody, ambitious actions as she is on what accent she should use. Some will write off this film for the lack of progression during the first third, for Stone's attempt to put up on a pedestal a blood-monger who proclaimed he wanted equality but still would murder to rule, or the general lukewarm feeling after it's all over. Most will dislike it for what it's not--a great Oliver Stone picture. But even a mediocre Stone film is worth watching once. 173m.

"Alexander" is now playing.

(2004-11-22)

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