After committing a crime in the throes of grief over his dead wife, French blacksmith Bailian (Bloom) discovers he's the son of a celebrated knight (Neeson). In search of redemption, he sets off for Jerusalem, where he becomes engulfed in local politics that pit Christian against Arab (where are the Jews?*). The struggle is between the voices of reason (Irons' world-weary Tiberias and Norton channelling Marlon Brando as the masked, leprous King Baldwin) and the warmongers (Csokas and Gleeson). Bailian's extremely strong integrity is put to the test, especially when he falls for the woman (Green) in the middle.

There are a couple of fundamental flaws here. First is Monahan's script, which leans toward thrusting expressions of machismo and corny emotion rather than any real character development. Like both Troy and Alexander, this leaves the film without a firm foundation; it's impossible to engage emotionally on any level. It's like watching a museum history film, although the plot is a bit suspect, since it's clearly been written to appeal to 21st century movie audiences, complete with heavy-handed moralising and obvious parallels to Bush-era politics.

The other problem is unoriginality. Scott's direction is of course strikingly visual, with first-rate effects and iconic, magnetic actors. But the battle imagery and story structure are so reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings (with Bloom now in the Aragorn role, complete with scruffy stubble) that we keep waiting for elfs or ents to come to the rescue. And it's choppily edited, with characters randomly appearing and disappearing. Fortunately, the cast is strong. Bloom doesn't yet have the range to make something out of nothing (see Irons for that), but he holds the film's centre with sheer brawny physicality and lots of stern scowls. No one else gets much to work with, but together they add up to a watchable ensemble. It's just a pity we never feel anything for them.

themes, strong violence

27.Apr.05