Cast: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany, Shannyn Sossamon, Alan Tudyk, Laura Fraser
Director: Brian Helgeland
Producers: Brian Helgeland, Todd Black, Tim Van Rellim
Screenplay: Brian Helgeland
Cinematography: Richard Greatrex
Music: Carter Burwell
U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures
A Knight's Tale is not the worst movie of 2001, but it is one of the sloppiest. A study of anachronisms (many of which are intentional), this action/adventure piece throws almost all history out the window in an attempt to turn the Middle Ages into a hip era of manly dudes in suits of armor, feminist damsels, and crowds who know the words to "We Will Rock You." Admittedly, all of this could be fun in a Bill and Ted meets Monty Python sort of way if the three-hatted Brian Helgeland (writer/director/producer) didn't expect us to take the characters and their overall predicament seriously. A Knight's Tale provokes its share of laughter, but most of the time we're laughing at the movie not with it, and that's the difference between derision and comedy.
A Knight's Tale was obviously inspired by one of the core attractions of Gladiator: apply a modern-day sports mentality to an ancient game. Here, it isn't the grueling duels-to-the-death of the Coliseum, but the relatively tamer contests of jousting (where losers sometimes survived). To spice things up and keep young audiences engaged, Helgeland has done away with anything resembling the real Middle Ages. The poverty and squalor of the era are greatly sanitized; Christianity - the driving force in Europe at this time - is ignored; and little things like plague and war are reduced to footnotes. The most curious thing Helegeland has elected to do is to borrow about a dozen classic rock tunes for his soundtrack. Even more disconcerting is that the peasants of the era apparently know all the words, because they can occasionally be seen dancing and singing to tunes like "We Will Rock You", "Low Rider", "Taking Care of Business", and "The Boys Are Back In Town". During those sequences, A Knight's Tale appears to have entered The Twilight Zone as authored by Monty Python. My personal feeling is that marketing considerations had a lot more to do with Helegeland's choice of music than creative freedom. A significantly greater number of consumers will buy a classic rock compilation CD than would buy an instrumental score.
The title character is William Thatcher (Heath Ledger), who's not really a knight - he just masquerades as one so he can travel around France winning jousting competitions. William is accompanied on his journeys by a small group of friends who help him to hide his identity. They are the ever-faithful Roland (The Full Monty's overweight lug, Mark Addy); a dagger-tongued blacksmith named Kate (Laura Fraser); the hot-tempered Wat (Alan Tudyk, acting like he's in need of Prozac); and the real historical figure of Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany, one of the few people who's fun to watch), who always appears to be on the verge of shouting, "Let's get ready to rumbleeeeeeee!" (Chaucer, if he were not long dead, would be able to sue for character assassination.) Of course, what knight's tale wouldn't be complete without a beautiful woman to woo and a dastardly villain to defeat. In this case, those two are Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) and Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell), respectively. It's up to William to win the love of the one and take down the other, so that Medieval Europe can once again be safe for peasants with matinee idol good looks.
It's hard not to sneer at a movie like this, which prostitutes every aspect of the creative process in an all-out attempt to lure viewers into the box office. Those who were offended by Gladiator's loose re-interpretation of history will be aghast by what A Knight's Tale does. In all honesty, Monty Python and the Holy Grail offers a more true-to-life portrait. But, historical concerns aside, there are plenty of other things to dislike about this movie, from the blandness of the characters to the utter predictability of the storyline. The jousting sequences are filmed in such a way as to elicit more yawns than jolts of adrenaline. Rufus Sewell's bad guy isn't nasty enough to be truly despicable (compare him to the Joaquin Phoenix's villain in Gladiator). And Shannyn Sossamon's Jocelyn is a bore (beautiful, but boring). The movie missed the boat by not pairing William with Kate - the fitful sparks between Heath Ledger and Laura Fraser, if fanned a little, might have developed into something. As it is, the only relationship with any potential is squelched by the director's inane desire to stay faithful to the formula.
A Knight's Tale remains true to one of the more lamentable rules of the summer movie season: less intelligence is more desirable. Unfortunately, it forgets that something has to fill the void left by the elimination of smart dialogue and good plotting. In many cases, that's action; however, here, the jousting matches are repetitive and wearying. And we don't even have a protagonist we can truly root for. Aside from the fact that Heath Ledger displays little ability as an actor, his 21st century good looks and attitude make him the film's biggest single anachronism. On more than one occasion, I wished some knightly opponent would knock him on his ass.
A Knight's Tale also suffers from "is it ever going to end?" disease. Not only does the movie have nothing of substance to say, but it takes over two hours to say it. Regardless of how much of the comedy was intentional, as Medieval romps go, this one finishes leagues behind the likes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Time Bandits. And, as summer fare goes, it's possible to find other movies that are equally as air-headed, infinitely more satisfying, and much shorter. This is one tale that isn't worth being told.
© 2001 James Berardinelli