I enjoyed reading about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in college, tho I've been a mite fuzzy on events in the middle. With the general praise for this adaptation, I went to a theater on a whim. Had I known that A24 was involved, I would have been more apprehensive.
An Ent-like horseman (Ralph Ineson) rides up to the Round Table with a challenge: Whoever strikes him gets to keep his nifty axe but has to show up at his Green Chapel a year later for recompense. Gawain (Dev Patel), nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris), wants to make a name for himself at last, so he decapitates the Green Knight, only to find that such a mystical figure doesn't die that easily. As the rather literal deadline approaches, Gawain heads out for no other reason than a thirst for honor....
Up to this point, the depiction was deviating only slightly (and rather needlessly) from the canon of the anonymously penned epic poem. I later confirmed that the poem glosses over much of the adventure that follows, so I'd grant the filmmakers some leeway for Act 2. What we get is partly entertaining and partly curious, like the writer felt free to throw in whatever came to mind. If you're hoping for fight scenes, you'll be disappointed; there are a few acts of violence beyond the above but no full-fledged combat, hence an "adventure" tag without an "action" tag. Even with the additions, things tend to feel slow, because it's hard to fill 130 minutes based on a pretty short story.
I am far more bothered by the deviations late in the story. They make Gawain (pronounced GAH-win herein) out to be less honorable and, indeed, seem to miss or at least downplay the moral. Omissions translate to unexplained nonsense, and characters are often hard to relate to on an emotional level. I get the impression that the filmmakers just couldn't connect with the mindset of the medieval material.
If there's one addition that I appreciate, it's Gawain's uninvited furry companion, prompting me to nickname him "Dances with Foxes." Unfortunately, it's rather obvious CG for this day and age. In general, the movie feels highly artificial in a lazy way, right down to the inconsistent archaic English. For all the attempts to come across as artsy, it's too run-of-the-mill Hollywood, just as I thought from the trailer.
The audience at my theater frequently chuckled at moments that I suspect weren't intended as comic relief, but they did clap at the end. Personally, I think they've been starved for big-screen spectacle and are too quick to respect a semblance of intellect.
No comments:
Post a Comment