Review
THE RECKONING
Starring Paul Bettany, Willem Dafoe and Vincent Cassel
Directed by Paul McGuigan
Opens Friday, April 2
Globe Theatre
A defrocked priest joins a troupe of travelling and, by the looks of ‘em, smelly actors in 14th-century England in The Reckoning, a medieval mystery by director Paul McGuigan.
Events begin promisingly enough when the good father Nicholas (Paul Bettany) is forced to flee his congregation and chop off his locks after indulging in adultery and perhaps worse transgressions. The troupe, too, is a lively lot – its new leader, Martin (Willem Dafoe), speaks eagerly of ditching the usual fare of Bible stories in favour of tales drawn from the muckier circumstances of contemporary life.
When the troupe rumbles into a town where an innocent woman has just been sentenced to hang for the murder of an adolescent boy, Martin spies the potential for a new kind of play. Nicholas, meanwhile, hopes that his quest for the truth will set the town (and himself) free. In any case, their activities raise the ire of a series of shadowy figures, including a monk (Ewen Bremner), an agent of the king (Matthew MacFadyen) and the venal French lord who presides over the town (Vincent Cassel).
An adaptation of Barry Unsworth’s Booker-nominated novel Morality Play, The Reckoning wrestles manfully with very big themes: the evolutionary shift from liturgical drama into the more modern forms of Renaissance theatre, the perils of life within a theocratic society, age-old debates over God’s will and the generally horrendous lot endured by the era’s common folk. Shot in a very convincing recreation of a medieval town, the film also boasts a distinctive visual sense and strong performances across the board (supporting players also include Gina McKee and an eminently grouchy Brian Cox).
Too bad The Reckoning turns out to be crushingly dull. McGuigan’s latest has many of the stylistic virtues of his visceral Cockney crime pic Gangster No. 1 but little of its predecessor’s drive or energy – only the scenes featuring the troupe in action have any intensity. The narrative is constantly halted by long, deadening patches of oratory and the solution to the mystery that supposedly lies at the heart of the story will surprise no one who’s still awake at journey’s end. Falling far short of its noble ambitions, The Reckoning may be as dreary and hopeless as the Middle Ages themselves. |
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