I’d set myself a list of things to do today and today the boy done good. Had a very productive day doing DIY and various other odd jobs that have been slowly accumulating and hanging over me. Had a bit of a shopping spree along the way too! I picked up a new pair of trainers, some carpet slippers (the kitchen tiles are COLD in the morning) and a new winter jacket.
I also made my first listing on eBay – the first stage in us clearing out excess clutter in our lives.
This evening we went to see Alexander at the local cinema. I’d held out hope that the critics might have been wrong but on the whole they weren’t. There was a lovely attention to detail and plenty of realism and good acting, but the film just wasn’t put together properly. It was narrated by an aged Ptolemy, but the narration tended to distract from the story rather than help it along. Similarly the battle scenes – while undoubtedly very realistic – were over-long and I found myself sitting there waiting for them to be over in the hope that there might be some story to follow.
The portrayal of the characters was good I thought. They did rather harp on about Alexander’s relationship with Hephaistion though – although it wasn’t quite the gay-sex-fest that one of critics had complained of (in fact the question of a physical relationship was left unanswered) it completely omitted two of his wives and only showed him shunning the one we did see. Not sure that this was entirely historically accurate… but the rest of the characters fitted with what I know of history. His father the overbearing, raucous general-king and his mother the bitter – and just a little twisted – scheming political bride.
Anyway, even though the recreation of Babylon was beautiful, I won’t be bothering with the DVD of this one. The film is a wasted opportunity that needn’t have been. With a little more script work, or even just better editing, it could have been a riveting, historically valid epic. Shame.
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