| You’ve probably already heard about A
Knight's Tale—a medireview tale of knights and ladies set
to an inspiring soundtrack featuring… Queen? I know, I know,
but it’s not as bad as it seems.
I simply adored this film, but ever since I saw it, I find
myself having to defend my opinion to the many naysayers out
there. This is a great film, I swear! Believe me, you will
enjoy it, no matter how silly and annoyingly anachronistic
the trailers make it seem.
A Knight's Tale follows a young peasant, William
Thatcher (Ledger) whose master Sir Ector dies minutes before
a jousting match. Hungry and desperately needing the money,
William decides to take Sir Ector’s place, violating strict
rules of competition that allow only nobility to compete in
the extremely popular sport. William wins and thus begins
his jousting career and façade of life as Sir Olrich von Lichenstein.
Along the way, William and his band of merry men, the passive
Roland (Addy) and the hotheaded Wat (Tudyk), meet up with
Chaucer (yes, THAT Chaucer, hilariously portrayed by Bettany)
and a beautiful female blacksmith named Kate (Fraser).
Of course, as in every good fairy tale, there is also a
beautiful lady and an archrival. The lady in question is Jocelyn,
a sort of punk-rock princess with hair and makeup that belong
more in Studio 54 than an English castle. Jocelyn is well
portrayed by Shannyn Sossamon, a New York dj who was discovered
and subsequently cast in A Knight's Tale, her first
acting role. The archrival, played by bug-eyed Australian
Sewell, is Count Adhemar, a vicious snob of a jouster, whose
skill is unmatched until the arrival of William.
Overall, the acting in A Knight's Tale was superb,
but Ledger and Bettany made the movie. Ledger, best known
in the U.S. for starring opposite fellow Aussie Mel Gibson
in last summer’s The Patriot, is making quite a name
for himself and the good press is well deserved. Ledger has
a kind of screen magnetism and charisma reminiscent of Gibson
or a young Tom Cruise (think Risky Business or Top
Gun). You can’t take your eyes off him, he’s just that
good…and Bettany almost stole the show from him! I’ll say
it right now and stick by it: Paul Bettany is the next big
comic talent. He had the audience in stitches the whole time
with his hilarious portrayal of legendary poet Geoffrey Chaucer,
here acting as William’s herald. Bettany apparently conceived
Chaucer as Ed McMahon meets WWF announcer—along with all the
other anachronisms, this strange combination for a noble herald
worked just fine and to wonderful results. Keep an eye out
for Bettany in Ron Howard’s upcoming A Beautiful Mind,
alongside Russell Crowe. I’m telling you, when he hits, he’ll
hit big!
Now, to deal with the big hullabaloo this film is causing,
the classic rock score along with medireview characters and
action shouldn’t work. In fact, it should be quite irritating
and make you want to walk out of the theater. Don’t ask how,
but it works incredibly well and seems obvious that the filmmakers
would use tunes from Queen and War to enhance jousting matches
and courtly love. In fact, none of the anachronistic elements
of the film (and there are many) should work as well as they
do, but somehow…
Writer and director Helgeland definitely had a vision when
he set out to make A Knight's Tale. Frankly, I’m surprised
he got the green light to make the picture, but I’m certainly
glad he did. A Knight's Tale is one of the best movies
I’ve seen this year and will be hard to beat as far as summer
movies go. The film is a fun romp through time and cinema
conventions with a couple of leading men poised to take over
Hollywood and the hearts of the American film public. Go see
it. I dare you not to like it!
— Renae Bolen
|
out of 5
While we would never encourage anyone to destroy a video... 
