Movie Minx

Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Brendan Gleeson
Directed by: Mel Gibson

Plot: Scotsman William Wallace, with long, flowing locks and a loud roar, unites his 13th-century countrymen to overthrow English rule.

But is it any good?

I hadn’t felt the need to see Braveheart before last night. But a friend of a friend earnestly pressed the DVD into my reluctant hand, assuring me it was one of his favorite movies and worth every minute of its epic three hours.

Now, post-battles and many Scottish bottoms later, I concede that it’s a good story, the kind where you just let go and become transported to its Medieval world. It has all the ingredients of a great tale - love, betrayal, revenge, battle, murder, honor, friendship, kilts. The action scenes are bold, bloody and exciting. And viewing it in a 2007 context, it also holds that particular value - freedom - which Americans hold so dear. No wonder it won the Best Picture Oscar in 1995.

But there are many things that prevent this from being a great film. First, we’ll start with Mel Gibson The Actor. He plays Wallace, a country boy who first loses his pa and bro, then his sweetheart to those low-down, despicable English, and transforms into an angry warrior (McMad Max?). Gibson’s dreadlocks, hairy legs and awkward Scottish accent are a few things that irk. The frequent, indulgent close-ups of his majestic self playing the hero add to the silliness.

But it’s Mel Gibson The Director who really lets the team down, in my opinion, although I suppose he deserves kudos for taking on such an enormous project. He has taken an intriguing legend, William Wallace Scotland’s Saviour, and turned it into the usual Hollywood epic. Did thousands of Scots really moon the Poms at the battle of Falkirk? Did William and his new wife really stand naked and backlit in the freezing Scottish outdoors? Was the Prince of England’s less-than-subtly-implied gayness supposed to make him a baddie? Did Gibson really have to show every ounce of blood possible and drag the film out a full three hours?

These questions will not be answered. And the ending, while uplifting as it was intended to be, is marred more than slightly by its melodrama. To me it smacks of religious preaching with its Jesus nods (and of course Gibson was heading in that directorial direction anyway).

See it if you liked Spartacus. It’s a good, entertaining story, but not memorable.

My rating: 6/10

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