The Knight's Tale follows the
smelly footprints of a peasant (Heath Ledger),
a knight wannabe who, through a mishmash of
desperation and timely opportunity, and an uncanny
ability to master new skills on the fly, masquerades
as a real knight and enters jousting competitions.
He is accompanied on this quest by his trusty
buddies and a befriended writer - one Chaucer
(Paul Bettany). Yes this is Geoffrey Chaucer:
the finest writer of medieval times is portrayed
not as the affable royal official and diplomat
he was, but as an affable pauper with a clothing-unfriendly
gambling habit. This serves the plot very well,
as it happens,
The Knight's Tale
has no respect for history. Indeed wonderful
comedy is harvested from blatantly planting
a gorgeous, pseudo-medieval world with overtly
modern references. In the opening scenes a tourney
full of peasants and lords alike sing the
Queen
anthem "
We Will Rock You".
Fantastically funny, this movie is soooooo loveable!
Our "knight" makes a powerful enemy
- one Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell) - and he
must battle him against all odds to win the
hand of a princess (Shannyn Sossamon).
The jousting scenes are great for action. The
build up... the galloping
steeds, the camera accelerating its alternating
from one opponent to the other, the hush, the
bone crunching, lance splintering clash, the
roar of the crowd, this action is sexy!
I was baffled by Will's choice of lass though.
He chose a spoiled princess, who
insisted that he put his life (and honour) at
serious risk just to
demonstrate his "love" for her.
Meanwhile there is Kate the blacksmith (Laura
Fraser) who repairs his armour for free; invents
a harder steal; from that creates for him a
suit of armour stronger and lighter than anything
that has been done before; oh and she teaches
him to dance for a ball. Oh and she tirelessly
tends to his needs in jousting competitions.
What a cool lass! But, no, he still lusts after
the spoiled - and as far as we call tell - relatively
talent-free, princess. Oh well, that's life.
A few niggles: the trailer gave away major plot
twists. Grrrrrr. And the
ending is way too heavily signposted in this
movie. Just as distracting was the length of
time devoted to this princess romance subplot.
My guess is that whist we chaps were peering
at our watches during the romance bits and impatiently
awaiting the comedy and action to fire up again,
maybe the women in the audience really were
enjoying it. Meanwhile, for the lads, the love
interest [sic] scenes serve as the troughs of
a roller coaster, necessary breaks between the
good bits. Even so,
The Knights Tale
could have been more tightly edited towards
the end, as it lost momentum for the sake of
superfluous melodrama.
However this film has heart, it has rock and
roll, it has a blast. The chemistry between
the characters works pleasingly, the story is
solid and the jokes, both spoken and visual,
are a genuine laugh. Most importantly
The
Knight's Tale is charged with something
the Studio corporations seem to have largely
given up even trying to bottle these days. You
can't knock it! you can't deny it! It's called
rattling good old-fashioned fun! This movie
gets medieval on your arse.
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spoilers corner
Spoilers!!!!
Warning: this box contains a movie post-mortem analysis that freely gives away important plot twists and details. If you have not yet seen this movie and intend seeing it, avoid this spoilers box until afterwards. Bookmark the page, see the movie, see if you agree with my review then write an arsy comment saying I am talking total b*ll*cks :-)
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I was annoyed that the trailer gave away
the plot line that our Knight gets arrested.
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There are no more spoilers below this
point, except maybe in any user talkback
comments.
End of spoilers corner
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The Princess meets her end unexpected in a speeding
chariot driven by a French drunkard chauffeur
who is working for an unpleasant Egyptian crook
(Mohammed Fayed).
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Alichia | Subject: | 2002-04-28 01:31:17 |
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