The Green Knight is a period fantasy, an adaptation of the 14th Century poem, written/directed by David Lowery. The film opens on Gawain(Dev Patel) who is or maybe isn't a knight as he makes his way to the king's Christmas celebration, there a mysterious Green Knight comes to challenge the round table knights to a bout which Gawain accepts. After Gawain must come to the Green Knight at a chapel a year later. Flashfoward a year, where it seems Gawain doesn't do much save get drunk, he begins his quest, encountering some vague mildly interesting characters along the way.
Patel does a decent job with the vague, underwritten, sketch of a character but the character itself isn't particularly interesting, doesn't go through any changes, doesn't even really react to the parade of encounters he has. The supporting cast is full of wonderful actors who all try valiantly to wrestle something coherent from the murky, half-formed narrative. Alicia Vikander in her first of two roles is the most successful as Essel but is in the film so briefly she can only do so much to right the sinking ship.
Lowery has an eye, that's unarguable, the film is beautiful and lush and epic but he is a wildly inconsistent screenwriter. A Ghost Story was similarly under baked and pretentious while The Old Man & The Gun was a lovely concise swan song for Robert Redford. He's all over the map with his narratives although his films always look great. Here, despite the beauty, it meanders, plods, mumbles, but never goes anywhere nor has much, if anything, to say. Given the source material its a bizarre choice. One could presume the vagueness is intended to leave character motives or narrative meaning "up to interpretation" but the reality is it makes no sense and seems as if Lowery himself doesn't know or couldn't be bothered with the clarity of his own plot.
Gorgeous but incredibly frustrating. A hollow art film for college-aged stoners.
Currently in theaters coming soon to VOD.
Don't See It.
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