Alexander

You know from an early scene of tiresome exposition by Anthony Hopkins that Oliver Stone's three-hour sword-and-sandal epic is doomed when a giant scar across the right side Hopkins' forehead mysteriously moves to the left side of his head between shots. Then comes Colin Farrell's Irish accent that wrestles against Angelina Jolie's faux Russian intonation like a cat and a monkey fighting in a burlap bag. For all of its attention to detail in two reasonably good battle scenes Stone's movie fails to tell the complex story of one of the most enigmatic conquerors in history. But more than that Stone doesn't present characters that the audience can believe in, even for one moment, as representative of their historic roles.

Rated R. 156 mins. (Two Stars)