Dull, Gray Knight

One of my favorite movies from the 1980s is Excalibur, John Boorman’s re-telling of the Arthurian legend. Before that movie, tales of Medieval knights had pretty much died out after the 1950s, other than in animated movies (The Sword in the Stone) or a musical (Camelot). Boorman infused his film with an organic sensuality and magical energy that blew every cobweb out of the genre, making it fresh and compelling. When it was released, the best-known cast member was Nicol Williamson, but it featured actors who would later become famous: Helen Mirren, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, and Ciaran Hinds. Excalibur paved the way for sword and sorcery tales like Ladyhawke and Conan the Barbarian, and it’s questionable that we’d have the Lord of the Rings films or “Game of Thrones” without it.

For that reason, I was eager to see The Green Knight. Based on an anonymous 14^th Century chivalric romance set during King Arthur’s reign, it features the youngest of Arthur’s knights, Gawain, who is also Arthur’s nephew. (Gawain showed up in Excalibur, played by Neeson.) The story has Arthur and his knights interrupted on New Year’s Eve by a gigantic knight all in green, wearing no armor but carrying a huge axe in one hand and a holly bough in the other, riding a green horse. He’s not interested in combat but rather suggests a friendly game – he’ll bear his neck and accept a blow from a knight, if that knight swears to meet him in the Green Chapel a year and a day later to receive a blow in return. Gawain brashly volunteers. The Green Knight bears his neck and Gawain slices the knight’s head off in a clean blow. But rather than die, the knight picks up his head and rides away laughing, after reminding Gawain of his vow.

True to his word, as the anniversary approaches Gawain sets off for the Green Chapel. After having adventures (alluded to but not described) on his way, Gawain comes to a splendid castle. When he explains his mission, the lord of the castle says the Green Chapel is only a few miles away. He invites Gawain to stay with him and his beautiful wife for the three days left before his appointment. After Gawain accepts, the lord suggests a wager: each day the lord will go hunting, leaving Gawain with his wife in the castle. When he returns from the hunt, the lord will exchange whatever he’s caught with whatever Gawain has gained that day. The wife tries to seduce Gawain each day, without success, and all Gawain gains each day is a chaste kiss. Then on the third day, the wife offers him a magical sash of green and gold silk that will protect him from harm. Knowing he must face the knight, Gawain accepts the gift and keeps it secret from the lord. When he faces the Green Knight, he flinches the first time the knight raises the axe, and the second time the knight again withholds the blow. The third time, the knight’s blow lands on Gawain’s neck, but leaves only a small mark. The Green Knight is then revealed to be his erstwhile host, the lord of the castle. The whole test was constructed by Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s witch of a half-sister, designed to test Arthur’s knights. Gawain is ashamed of his deceit, and when he returns to Camelot, he confesses his failure to be honorable to Arthur and his knights. The knights forgive him and following that they take turns wearing the sash as a reminder to always be honest.

That’s briefly the original story, which I can explain without any spoiler warning because any resemblance between the original story and the movie is purely coincidental. Screenwriter and director David Lowery has completely reimagined the story, but in a self-indulgent way that leaves it a confusing muddle. Lowery had made A Ghost Story in 2017, an atmospheric tale of love and loss where the specter looks like the simplest Halloween costume, and recently he did The Old Man & The Gun with Robert Redford. With The Green Knight, he shows an apparent belief that the dark ages were dark because it was cloudy and gray every day. The titular character looks like a whittled-down version of the monster in A Monster Calls, a black walking tree, while Gawain is portrayed as a callow, feckless youth.

Between playing Gawain in this movie and The Personal History of David Copperfield, Dev Patel has made admirable strides for race-blind casting. On the other hand, he must work extra hard to seem callow and feckless, which goes against his natural manner. Lowery has added a tomboyish love interest for Gawain, played by Alicia Vikander who then later plays the wife of the lord of the castle. That could have set up an interesting dynamic, but Lowery mostly ignores it. He adds in events to fill the time between Gawain setting out for the Green Chapel and his arrival at the lord’s castle, but they do little to enhance the story.

Rather than try anything like the original ending, Lowery steals the format of “The Last Temptation of Christ,” but the scene is so drawn out and painful not only Gawain would choose a quick blow from an axe, but so would the audience watching this mess. While it’s been garnering some good critical response, don’t believe it. Let The Green Knight be lost in the mist of history – it more than deserves that fate.

Google It

“Based on a True Story” can be a warning that the filmmakers have taken so many liberties the “true” of the story has been lost. On the other side of the equation, it can instead tell the audience that an unbelievable story actually did happen. Lion is an example of the latter.

In 1986, 5-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) lives in a village in western India with his mother, older brother, and younger sister. It’s a hard life – Saroo assists his brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) in stealing coal off a moving train to barter for milk – but they are a loving, close family. When Guddu heads for a job in a nearby town, Saroo talks his brother into taking him along to work. But when they arrive Saroo is too tired and only wants to sleep. Guddu leaves him on a bench at the town’s train station, with the admonition not to go anywhere.

Saroo awakens to find the station completely deserted. A group of railway passenger cars have been left on a siding, and Saroo enters a car to find a better place to sleep. When he awakens, the cars have been locked and hooked to a train headed to the main railroad yards in Calcutta, 1600 kilometers away. Saroo manages to survive in the city, though not without several close calls, in particular from people who exploit the city’s street children. Through good fortune he’s adopted by an Australian couple and moves to Hobart, Tasmania.

Twenty years later, Saroo (now played by Dev Patel), is still close to his adoptive mother and father, John & Sue Brierley (David Wenham, Nicole Kidman), and has a romance blooming with Lucy (Rooney Mara) whom he met at hotel management school. At a party with others students of Indian descent, a plate of food releases memories of his lost life. He only knew his mother as “mama” – no proper name – and what he remembered as the name of his home village didn’t match anything on the maps. About all he remembers as a landmark are water towers by the train station. One of the party goers suggests using a new computer program to backtrack his route. The program: Google Earth. (Google assisted the production, including providing images from the time frame of the film.)

This is the first feature for Garth Davis, an internationally acclaimed director of commercials. The screenplay by Luke Davies, based on Saroo Brierley’s autobiography, splits the movie into two almost equal pieces between the young Saroo and his later quest to find his family. Davis, assisted by cinematographer Greg Fraser, captures both India and Tasmania in a rich, intimate way. While Davis and Davies hadn’t done much feature film work before Lion, Fraser is one of the preeminent directors of photography in Australia. In the last decade his films include Rogue One, Zero Dark Thirty, Foxcatcher and Let Me In.

This is a more mature performance from Dev Patel, who became a star with Slumdog Millionaire, followed by both Best Exotic Marigold Hotel pictures as well as appearing in HBO’s “The Newsroom.” He gets top billing, though he doesn’t appear until the last half of the film. However, he makes the most of his time and deserves the Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination he’s received, as well as the win in that category at the BAFTA awards. While he’s tended toward gawky characters in previous projects, this could be the beginning of beefcake roles for Patel who shows smoldering good looks and a buff physique.

Nicole Kidman is also nominated (Best Supporting Actress) for her restrained but deeply felt performance. At the end of the film we see real footage of the real Sue Brierley and realize Kidman nailed the embodiment. But the major delight is Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo. The camera reads his emotions like a book. In his first role he holds together the first half of the movie, and hold it he does.

I don’t know if this Sunday night will bring any golden statues for Lion. Along with Patel and Kidman, Davies and Fraser are nominated along with the film’s score, plus a Best Picture nod. The picture, though, has aimed to have an effect long after the lights go up in the theater. In India, 80,000 children go missing each year. It’s the equivalent of losing the population of Indianapolis each year. There are also 11 million children on the streets of India, roughly equivalent to the combined population of New York and Los Angeles. The film’s production companies, See Saw Productions and the Weinstein Company, have launched the LionHeart foundation with the Charity Network to help India’s street children.

I do suggest you bring along a tissue or two when you see Lion.

Next Best?

In the summer of 2012, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a welcome relief from the usual shoot-‘em-up, blow-‘em-up movies that fill the schedule. The story of a group of elderly Britons moving to India was charming, and a showcase for a cast full of the best British actors over the age of sixty. Now John Madden and Ol Parker, the original’s director and screenwriter respectively, have reassembled their cast, added a couple of bonuses, and brought forth a sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

The movie begins with hotel owner Sonny (Dev Patel) and his manager Muriel (Maggie Smith) on a trip to California to seek a partnership with a hotel chain run by Ty Burley (David Straitharn). Parker knows enough not to tinker with the original characters so Muriel is as opinionated and curmudgeonly as in the original movie. Her dissection of how Americans make hot tea is almost worth the movie ticket by itself, and when she’s later asked how the trip was, she responds, “I went with low expectations – I was disappointed.” Burley promises to send an inspector to check out the proposal and if they’re satisfied, he’ll invest.

The rest of the survivors of the first movie are there for Sonny’s morning roll call: Evelyn (Judi Dench), who’s pursuing a new career as a fabric purchaser; Douglas (Bill Nighy), now separated from his wife Jean (Penelope Wilton) but hopeful for a second chance at love; the amorous Marge (Celia Imrie) who is pursuing two wealthy men at the same time; rakish rogue Norman (Roland Pickup), still with Carol (Diana Hardcastle) whom he met during the first movie; and also Sonny’s fiancée, Sunaina (Tina Desai) who’s now working with him as they prepare for the wedding. Soon though, new arrivals upset the balance, including an American looking to write a novel (Richard Gere).

The main thread of the story is Sonny and Sunaina’s nuptials, which breaks the story into three acts, but wound into it is Sonny’s seeking to expand his success as an hotelier. This is a bit contrived, especially a mistaken identity subplot that has Sonny acting even more crazy than normal. Still, the machinations manage to be both funny and poignant at times. Another story line involving Norman begins as a farce but leads to a heartfelt moment. However, the rest of the film has a number of moments that sparkle like diamonds. It’s like sitting in for a master class on film acting taught by consummate professionals. Even though he has only two short scenes, Straitharn matches the rest of the cast with a memorable characterization that etches itself into your memory.

The movie also benefits from being in turn laugh-out-loud funny and get-out-your-hankies poignant. Madden and Parker trust the audience enough to leave some things implied rather than beating the audience over the head with the script, which is a pleasant difference from much of the Hollywood fare. Madden’s camera captures India beautifully, so that it feels both exotic as well as completely familiar. They do follow the convention of India cinema by having an extensive and extravagant musical dance at the end, with Dench, Gere et al participating.

In some ways the title is unfortunate, having “Second Best” as part of it. It may not be the complete delight of the original; having that lightning strike twice would be too much to ask for or expect. But it does come so very, very close to the first movie that fans of the original will not be disappointed.