A Knight's Tale (2001)

Director: Brian Hegeland                                       Writer: Brian Hegeland
Film Score: Carter Burwell                                    Cinematography: Richard Greatrex
Starring: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell and Shannyn Sossamon

I don’t really do the whole, “I walked out of this after thirty minutes” thing, and then trash the film . . . but I really wanted to. I started watching because I really like Heath Ledger, and even a mediocre medieval tale of knights can be pretty good, so I though A Knight's Tale had potential. But then the title sequence began with a crowd at a joust clapping and stomping along to Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” and my jaw dropped. It wasn’t just the music, the whole thing was full of anachronisms. A woman dancing in a modern way, kids with face paint and big, bare-chested guys like something from a pro football game. Just a bad opening? I had hopes, but then the prince began to sing along. Oh, no. And yet I was still willing to give it a chance. But when War’s “Low Rider” came on during their practice session, I immediately turned it off. Eventually, however, I had to go back and finish it, just to make sure, but my first impression was right.

The biggest problem with the film is just how lame the attempt at comedy is. It’s one thing to inject humor into a period piece in a way that is intelligent, full of anachronisms, and yet satisfying in its thorough understanding of how to employ exactly the right type of humor. The quintessential example of this is Shakespeare in Love, which kept faithful to the period, used period dialogue, an appropriate score by Stephen Warbeck, and was an Oscar winning success. Now, the other way to go is Kate and Leopold, where the nobleman is transported to modern times, and the humor evolves from his being literally out of time. But A Knight’s Tale wants it both ways. It wants to be a modern romantic comedy, with seventies music, set in the middle ages. The characters attempt to speak period, but act modern, and when Leger calls the object of his affection a “foxy lady” the only thing it elicits is a cringe.

The story, such as it is, has Heath Ledger filling in for a dead knight in the jousting ring, and then perpetuating his deception to earn money for himself and his two partners, Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk. He falls in love with Shannyn Sossamon, a woman that the Count, Rufus Sewell, also has designs on, and attempts to win her love with his deception. It's the same as many similar stories, including The Princess Bride and Disney's Aladdin. Bad enough, all that, but then they try to crib from Shakespeare in Love by throwing Paul Bettany as Chaucer into the mix as a gambling addict, and instead of the humorous take on a classic author we get a buffoon. Mark Addy, who was brilliant in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, is completely wasted here. Carter Burwell’s score is unmemorable, and he really hasn’t been a composer of any importance since the eighties. Director Brian Hegeland’s script is tedious and predictable and ultimately a bore. All of the comedy, we’ve seen before. All of the romance, we’ve seen before. All of the masquerade, we’ve seen before. All of the underdog victory, we’ve seen before. All of which means we don't really need to see A Knight’s Tale.