In 2002, I rang in the new year by seeing some of my favorite literary characters come to life on the big screen with The Fellowship of the Ring.
Along with a thrilling movie experience, I gained a hefty list of
actors, most of whom I'd never heard of before, to watch out for. Lord of the Rings cast members helped lead me to Pirates of the Caribbean, 13 Going on 30, On a Clear Day and, most notably, LOST. This week, I watched a film I'd selected mostly because it stars Ian Holm, who played my beloved Bilbo Baggins.
The Emperor's New Clothes
has nothing to do with a man strutting around naked, though it does
involve an adjustment of the titular character's pride. Still, more than
that famous fable, this tale echoes The Prince and the Pauper as
a ruler in exile switches places with a tipsy commoner as part of a
plan to restore himself to power. This is no generic king. Alan Taylor's
light-hearted slice of historical fiction re-imagines the traditional
account of Napoleon's death, claiming it as inaccurate. The tale unfolds
in a reasonably believable fashion, to the point that it's easy to
forget that there is no factual basis to it.
If I weren't so
fond of Holm just the way he is, I might be inclined to complain that
perhaps the most iconic Frenchman of them all has an English accent. For
the sake of my appreciative ears, however, I'll forgive it. I'm glad I
had Holm as an anchor through this film because I was completely
unfamiliar with every other actor involved, including Iben Hjejle, who
plays Pumpkin, the melon-selling widow to whom Napoleon develops a
romantic attachment. He does a marvelous job, clearly differentiating
the two characters he plays and carrying himself with dignity as the
emperor even though he's almost as short as Bilbo and many people he
meets tower over him.
I was a tad surprised at how heavily the
film leaned on Napoleon's side of the story, since generally in tales
of this nature it seems the parallel stories are given somewhat equal
attention. It soon becomes clear that the experience of Eugene
Lenormand, the commoner who impersonates Napoleon, is of little
consequence, aside from how it will affect the emperor. Still, I love
the scenes with Eugene because they are among the funniest in the movie.
Napoleon has some comical bits too, particularly when he uses
his tactical expertise to come up with a new business strategy for
Pumpkin, but primarily his role is one of awakening. He gradually loses
much of his arrogance and comes to discover that some things are more
important than power, a realization that is soon tested...
The Emperor's New Clothes
is an interesting movie with a charming streak of romance and idealism.
Though it's classified as a comedy, I wouldn't really identify it as
such; the wit is spread about sparingly so that there are some stretches
of film that seem to stretch out excessively. Overall, though, this is a
sweet and lovely movie. Especially if you like Ian Holm.
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