A brave and noble son atones for the sins of his father in Kevin Macdonald’s swords and togas epic The Eagle, based on the novel The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. Set in the wilds of 140AD England and Scotland, but partly filmed in Hungary, the film pits the might of the Roman Empire against the barbarism of the indigenous tribes, who slit the throats of their badly behaved children.
Channing Tatum strides manfully into the breach as the emotionally and physically scarred hero, coping well with the rigours of Jeremy Brock’s screenplay that includes some bone-crunching battle sequences.
A skirmish between the legionnaires and the heathens at the start of the film, the latter charging into the fray on chariots with blades affixed to wheels, is thrillingly captured. Blood and mud spatter the lens as swords clash and sinews ripple, at least one soldier losing a limb as those horse-drawn carriages scythe through Roman defences.
Underpinning the barbarism is the unlikely friendship between master and slave, whose distrust must be put to one side as they venture north of Hadrian’s Wall, in search of a military trophy.
In 120AD, the entire Ninth Legion disappears in Scotland and its standard, a golden eagle, is lost, to the eternal shame of Rome. The commander of those soldiers also vanishes. Twenty years later, his son, Marcus Aquila (Tatum), accepts a posting in Roman-occupied southern Britain in order to learn the truth about his father’s demise.
The soldier is badly injured protecting his men and he recuperates with the help of his uncle (Donald Sutherland) and slave boy Esca (Jamie Bell), whom Aquila saves from certain death in the gladiator’s ring. Once he has regained his strength and mobility, Aquila heads north in search of answers accompanied by Esca, a member of the tribe of savages responsible for slaying the Ninth.
The Eagle hinges on the rapport between the leads and Tatum is impressive, bringing a brooding physicality and emotional vulnerability to his role. Bell pales by comparison but gets his moment to shine in a touching scene, when Esca defies the orders of Aquila and refuses to leave the badly wounded Roman to his untimely fate.
With Tatum and Sutherland cast as Romans, British co-stars must adopt unconvincing American accents for the sake of continuity.
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) has been wrestling with writer’s block for weeks and now his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) has finally given up on him in Limitless. At his lowest ebb, Eddie meets his former brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), who gives the writer a wonder pill called NZT, said to increase brain activity and unleash untapped creativity. Eddie swallows it and the next morning, he discovers he has furiously churned out the first 40 pages of his magnum opus.
As Eddie becomes addicted to the medication, he metamorphoses from hopeless bum into a suave and charming man about town, winning back Lindy and earning the respect of Wall Street mogul, Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro). But Eddie’s supply of pills is finite and to continue his meteoric rise, he must acquire a new stash.
Limitless is stylishly crafted by director Burger, who employs some nifty visual trickery to replicate the hallucinogenic side effects of NZT as it opens Eddie’s mind to a world of thrilling possibilities.
Nobody likes a know-it-all and sure enough, Cooper struggles to win our sympathy. There’s a certain amount of Schadenfreude on our part when he must suffer for abusing his powers.
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