Oh yes, Troy. Hmmm. Well, the casting works. Quick quiz: One of the following paragraphs is a description of Achilles from Gregory Nagy's Heroes and the Homeric Iliad. The other is from a CNN.com article on Brad Pitt. Can you guess which is which?

...the idealized bridegroom, sensual in his heroic beauty...the ultimate bridegroom...The very mention of him in song conjures up the picture of a beautiful flower cut down at the peak of its bloom.

...his marriage to Jennifer Aniston this summer only increased his sex appeal, making him "a poster boy for manhood in the new millennium."

Hard to tell, isn't it? Still, I'm not sure whether Brad Pitt properly "conjures up the picture of a beautiful flower cut down at the peak of its bloom." Ladies, any thoughts?

All in all, I'm not sure about this movie. I'll grant that the trailer and the official site do seem a little bit...strained. But Wolfgang Peterson is a director worth taking seriously, and the screenplay is by David Benioff, who wrote the novel and screenplay for 25th Hour, the best movie of last year. Also promising: Peter O'Toole and Brian Cox, the grandest old men in the movies, as Priam and Agamemnon. Finally, casting Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus and Orlando Bloom as Paris only makes Helen's dilemma all the more heart-wrenching. I mean, whom in Apollo's name would you choose?