Directed by: David Lowery
Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, Ralph Ineson, Barry Keoghan, Erin Kellyman, Sarita Choudury
A lot of what I'm about to write in this review is actually based on thoughts about The Green Knight I had after I walked out of the theater. Before that, I was willing to dismiss The Green Knight as a slog through a gloomy, dreamlike journey for which our hero Sir Gawain (Patel) is ill-equipped. He truly does not understand what is being asked of him, and when he does come to terms with it, is he willing to sacrifice his life for his honor?
There is rarely any sunshine in The Green Knight, which is either a cinematography choice or a story one. The opening moments have a hung-over Gawain awoken from his slumber by a splash of water in his face. He quickly says goodbye to his lower-station girlfriend (Vikander) and his mother before trotting off to a Christmas banquet thrown by his uncle King Arthur (Harris). Arthur invites Gawain to sit beside him at the feast, which maybe raises his hubris a bit too high when The Green Knight (Ineson), who looks to be half-statue and half-tree barges in to lay down a challenge to the Round Table.
The challenge is this: Strike The Green Knight with your best blow and in one year's time, whomever strikes the blow must travel to the Knight's palace to receive the same blow in turn. The pumped-up Gawain foolishly agrees to the duel and quickly lops off The Green Knight's head. However, The Green Knight rises, picks up his head, and races away on his horse holding his laughing head a la The Headless Horseman. Gawain's year until next Christmas has just become much more worrisome. When the day finally arrives for Gawain to set out on his journey nearly one year later, he has a lot to think about.
The trek to The Green Knight's lair is not a fun one. Gawain encounters a group of thieves who tie him up, steal his horse, and leave him for dead in a forbidding forest. After escaping, Gawain then stumbles upon a mysterious woman who has lost her own head and asks Gawain to find it in a nearby swamp, and then Gawain finds himself in the house of a lord (Edgerton), who is more than hospitable to his guest for reasons made clear later. Many of these scenes are filmed in near darkness, so it is difficult to see who is doing what to whom.
When Gawain finally arrives to fulfill his destiny by meeting The Green Knight again, we see what would happen if Gawain were to run away or if he stayed and accepted his fate. Up until then, The Green Knight is too dreary to be enjoyed on any conventional level, but the final moments allow us to ponder and understand its true nature. Perhaps the lack of joy and dread are intentional, because that is likely what Gawain is feeling as he proceeds forward to the eventual showdown. Patel has excelled in the past with characters caught in moral quandaries in such films as Lion and Slumdog Millionaire. He does so here as well. His expressions remind us of a man who is kicking himself for allowing a moment's pride to send him on such an arduous trek. He deludes himself into thinking he has a chance to escape, but with every step, his fate is sealed.
So I find myself at a crossroads when reviewing The Green Knight. It is a movie which invites reflection after the fact more than entertainment while you're watching it. If I had written this review within thirty minutes after seeing it, my gut reaction would've been 1 1/2 stars and that would've been that. Something, however, nagged at me at The Green Knight, and caused me to reflect further. This isn't a simple retelling of a King Arthur legend or fable. King Arthur is hardly in it. I suppose this is the strangest three-star review I've ever written, mostly because all of the story's power and thoughtfulness struck me long after I left the theater. The idea that I felt the need to think more about it is what makes The Green Knight a unique moviegoing experience.
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