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"&lt;p&gt;Nice touch opening this period epic with a football game featuring Heath Ledger and a cast of studs going at it as if they were in training for Super Bowl 2003. But director Shekhar Kapur (&lt;a href=\"../../../movies/reviews/elizabeth-19981122\"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Elizabeth&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;) can&amp;apos;t con us for long. The game is rugby, the actors are playing British officers, and &lt;em&gt;The Four Feathers&lt;/em&gt;, based on A.E.W. Mason&amp;apos;s 1902 novel, is focused on the 1884 British campaign to grab a piece of northern Africa.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;wm:embed type=\"related\"&gt;&lt;/wm:embed&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ledger gives his all to the role of Harry Feversham, the general&amp;apos;s son who resigns on the eve of battle in the Sudan. His three friends each send him a white feather, a symbol for being chickenshit. Then his fiancee, Ethne (Kate Hudson), sends the fourth feather. Ouch.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;o Harry spends the rest of the movie disguised as an Arab, trying to save his pals and prove his worth. It should have been an old-fashioned rouser, and sometimes it is. The great cinematographer Robert Richardson (&lt;a href=\"../../../movies/reviews/jfk-19911220\"&gt;&lt;em&gt;JFK&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;) lights the battle scenes like action paintings. But Kapur weighs down the tale with bogus profundities.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;And the romance &amp;#x2014; Harry&amp;apos;s friend Jack (Wes Bentley) tries to woo away Ethne &amp;#x2014; saps the movie&amp;apos;s energy. It&amp;apos;s painfully artificial to hear L.A. girl Hudson Brit-chirp, &amp;quot;I cahn&amp;apos;t.&amp;quot; And don&amp;apos;t ask about the character who sees the evils of imperialism only after he goes blind. Please, I cahn&amp;apos;t.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-four-feathers-20020925>