Bana wins over critics for Troy

Brad Pitt and Eric Bana are best buddies, sharing the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, slapping each other on the back, maybe sharing a beer or two.

Let's hope the relationship doesn't sour when Pitt reads the reviews of Troy in the top American newspapers and magazines.

Bana, the former funny guy from suburban Melbourne, has emerged with a nice report card.

But the critics weren't so kind to Pitt.

"Bana, the Aussie actor who was so good in Chopper and so lost in The Hulk, gives the film's strongest performance, nailing the nobility in Hector without making him a paragon of dull virtue," Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Margaret A McGurk concurred.

"When the fighting stops, Pitt's performance, like the distracting not-quite-British accent he feigns, is simply awkward," McGurk wrote.

"In contrast, consider co-star Eric Bana playing Achilles' enemy, the Trojan prince Hector. He is convincing both as a war hero and a man emotionally connected to his land and family."

But AO Scott of the New York Times liked the pairing of Bana and Pitt.

"Mr Bana, after his tentative superhero turn in The Hulk, shows more confidence here," Scott wrote.

"His brooding, bearded countenance plays against Mr Pitt's gleaming blondness, and the visual contrast emphasises the differences between the characters."

But Bana didn't escape unscathed, copping a bashing from The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt.

"Bana is not a particularly athletic actor, so his fighting looks staged. Nor does the script ever allow him to flush with anger or take charge of his own destiny," Honeycutt wrote.

USA Today's Claudia Puig said Bana "gives an emotionally layered portrayal" and welcomed Pitt as "eye candy".

"This may not be Pitt's most dramatically complex portrayal, (but) his Greek-god-like physique surely will launch a thousand quickened pulses," Puig wrote.