The Green Knight (2021)

Directed by David Lowery. Starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Sean Harris, Joel Edgerton, Ralph Ineson, Barry Keoghan, Kate Dickie, Sarita Choudhury, Erin Kellyman, Helena Brown. [R]

Spellbinding revisionist fable based on the Middle English poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Patel plays the not-quite-Sir Gawain, present at the court of King Arthur (Harris) when his pagan mother (Choudhury) summons the mysterious and formidable Green Knight (Ineson) on Christmas Day, who issues a challenge—land a blow upon his bark-like flesh, and he shall revisit the strike upon the champion a year’s time hence. Blinded by his ambitions to be one among the heralded knights of lore, Gawain accepts the terms, but soon tastes the lament of the heedless, and embarks the following year with great doubt and trepidation on a quest to live up to the bargain. Disorienting deconstruction of the gallant hero myth and chivalric virtues, its protagonist is tested at all turns by hardship, despair, and temptation; self-consciously arty and opaque at times, with an ending borrowed directly from a certain controversial biblical drama, but its themes and images bleed through those cracks for a one-of-a-kind experience. Indeed, it’s a buffet for the eyes even more than the mind, with digital effects blending seamlessly with the striking production design, brought to haunting, verdant life in a painterly haze of sun-dappled splendor and shadow-drenched gloom. Patel is excellent, toiling in conflicted silences to evoke empathy, while the makeup effects and earthy sound design imbue Ineson’s baritone “knight” with a credibly vivid physicality. Likely to leave some viewers cold (especially those expecting a traditional medieval action picture, or those who demand fidelity to the source material, as the overall meaning of the poem and several key plot points are altered dramatically), but a must-see for those ready to be transported and mesmerized. Director Lowery also wrote the adaptation, edited, and co-produced.

90/100