Flak Magazine: Review of A Knight's Tale, 5-17-01

While at first you might consider writer/director Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale confusing, that label is a little too ... rewarding. It's quite simple, really — take one part Gladiator and one part Aladdin, mix evenly and bake for 132 minutes.

The plot is equally oversimplified. William Thatcher (Heath Ledger), a peasant assistant to a deceased knight, dons his former master's gear and masquerades in the most elite, most thrilling event of the time — the joust. He vows to "change his stars" and become a champion — nay, a knight! The movie's lineage is unmistakable in its colossal arenasphere and its Ali Ababwa tomfoolery.

But at least Aladdin had to stump for Princess Jasmine. Here, the stunningly gorgeous Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon, face prettier than the name) pretty much throws herself at Thatcher and barely flinches when his rival Adhemar (Rufus Sewell, channeling Fortinbras) discovers that Thatcher indeed is not — gasp! — Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein. Take the already-familiar Gladiator arc — imprisonment, mano-a-mano face-off, lionization — and that's pretty much it.

What's there to be confused about, then? Two things, the first of which is the question of where Helgeland¹s edge went. If anything was learned from Payback, which he wrote and directed, or The Postman, Conspiracy Theory and L.A. Confidential, which he wrote or co-wrote, it's that he loves the loner. Here, however, he throws Ledger in with a chortling band of flatulating bumblers, highlighted by an earnest but typecast Mark Addy (The Full Monty) and, borrowing heavily from the ridiculous parts of Ever After, Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer. The group play is amiable enough, even enjoyable, but it draws heavily away from the sketchy-enough star power of Ledger, whose smug mug has practically been the movie's sole marketing thrust. Instead of the toughness of Payback's Porter or the Postman, there's a laddishness that works counter to the testosterone of competition.

Second, wasn't A Knight's Tale ballyhooed as an inventive mix of modern terms and medieval times? Helgeland drops rock music into the diegesis with a crowd beating and singing along to "We Will Rock You," but all he does is overlay a soundtrack of the most tried and tired motivators available ("We Are The Champions," "You Shook Me All Night Long"). This trick starts off corny and descends into nothing more than a page from the Varsity Blues production plan. One expects the jousting champion to spike his helmet and get carried off by his offensive line.

The only new "convention" that comes close to working is with the free-wheeling Bettany, whose Chaucer apparently introduced the jousting world to Michael Buffer-esque athlete introductions. But this, too, fails when it's realized this Chaucer is good at locker-room-style motivation but sends steel balloons over when called upon for verse or poetry. Add this to 21st century zingers and Nike swooshes on armor; there's all the movie has to offer for innovation.

For the most part, Ledger could have been replaced with a cardboard cut-out of himself. He plays most of his lines with modest blanket enthusiasm one would expect for Coors commercials, not lead roles in period pieces. He is at best likable, but if the saving grace of Sossamon's exotic beauty doesn't get you past the irascibly flat climax, little will. The stakes are not high enough to interest anyone; he got the girl unconditionally, and he penetrates the jousting world so easily that you feel any failure would be nothing more serious than a temporary setback.

A Knight's Tale must have looked fine on drawing board, and on screen it's reasonably satisfactory at times. If you ordered an ultra-modern knight pic starring the 'throb of The Patriot and penned by the maker of Payback, however, you would surely be disappointed. A hero may rise, but a whole new world it's not.

— Andy Stilp (andy.stilp at gmail dot com)