Napoleon (2023) review

For those of you who slept through AP European History, here's a (very) loose refresher: once Marie-Antoinette (Catherine Walker) gets her noggin' lobbed off and Robespierre (Sam Troughton) meets a grim fate, young soldier Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) steps in and leads an attack on the British, romances promiscuous widow Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby), attacks Egypt, is crowned Emperor, invades Russia (but loses a lot of men due to the inclement weather), is exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, returns to France (Joséphine is dying from pneumonia) ... and then there's the Battle of Waterloo.  It's far more engaging when Scott is building up an expansive combat sequence - of which there aren't too many - as opposed to both the political and (unexpectedly laughable) "romantic" parts, where it sort of grinds itself to a halt and becomes tedious (as skilled as The Little Corporal was on the battlefield, his personal life wasn't so successful), and the dialogue could have used some touching up ("Destiny has brought me this lamb chop!").  Since I'm not a historian I'll leave it to others to pick apart where it stretches the truth, but I must commend Phoenix on a rather driven performance: for all his nationalist audacity, his version of Napoleon is still a man-child who craves affection (but required an heir).  By the way, should you find yourself in Paris, be sure to stop by the Hôtel des Invalides and pay the old warrior a visit....