Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a blacksmith in twelfth century France (although there is no trace of an accent) who is found by the father he never met, a crusader named Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson) and persuaded to fight the good fight in Jerusalem. Balian initially turns him down, but after murdering the local priest for insulting the memory of his wife who’d committed suicide, he makes a rapid career change. 

On the way to the holy land Godfrey dies and Balian comes under the protection of king Baldwin IV (a masked Ed Norton) who is rapidly dying of leprosy and his advisor, Tiberias (Jeremy Irons). He falls for the king’s sister, Sibylla (Eva Green), but becomes torn between his faith and his conscience in his fight against the Muslim army led by Saladin (Ghassan Massoud).

There are some sterling performances from Norton, Irons and David Thewlis as Godfrey’s second in command and Scott applies his wonderful visual flair throughout, but Bloom doesn’t seem weighty enough in the role and Green doesn’t really get the chance to develop beyond a love interest. Bill Monahan’s script is far too wordy (something that afflicted Bloom and others in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy) and the audience may be left wanting more.

(3½/5)

Release Date: 03 October 2005

Kingdom Of Heaven