"Nostradamus" is an overstuffed historical soap opera about the 16th-century doctor, astrologer, prophet and all-around great guy. Its silly, anachronistic dialogue must have been hard to take seriously, which may account for the entire cast's poker faces.
Fighting the plague, Nostradamus gently puts little tablets made from rose petals under his patients' tongues. Though he has alarming visions (World War I is much on his mind, shown in sepia-toned scenes of German soldiers and tanks), his prophecies are less important at first than his persecution by the Inquisition. And, of course, there are his hot romances. You knew Nostradamus made prophecies -- interpreted as foretelling everything from the French Revolution to Armageddon -- but did you know he was irresistible to women?
Among his many conquests is his first wife, Marie (Julia Ormond). An assistant to Nostradamus's mentor (F. Murray Abraham), she is annoyed at being shut out of the men's research. "If you can't treat me as an equal, then find another woman," she shouts. Maybe Mrs. Nostradamus was just prophesying what women would be saying in 300 years.
Eventually Nostradamus peers into a basin of water and sees Hitler, John and Jacqueline Kennedy riding in the Dallas motorcade, and a nuclear explosion.
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