Chevalier

Based on true events, Chevalier follows Joseph Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) as he achieves a great deal of notoriety as a musician and composer within 18th century France. Filmmaker Stephen Williams, armed with Stefani Robinson’s screenplay, delivers a fairly generic biopic that never quite becomes as compelling or spellbinding as its subject matter might’ve indicated, and there’s little doubt, ultimately, that the movie’s arms-length atmosphere is compounded by its undercurrent of melodrama and Harrison Jr.’s distractingly modern (and arrogant) lead performance – with, in terms of the former, the ongoing emphasis of Joseph’s illicit romance of a married singer (Samara Weaving’s Marie-Josephine) hardly as enthralling as Williams has obviously intended. It’s clear, then, that Chevalier‘s mild success is due mostly to Karen Murphy’s sumptuous production design and a smattering of engaging sequences (eg Bologne’s pre-credits encounter with Joseph Prowen’s Mozart), while the eventful closing stretch admittedly does ensure that the whole thing concludes on a comparatively captivating note – with the final result a hit-and-miss true-life tale that generally feels like it should be so much better.

**1/2 out of ****