THE RECKONING Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Paul McGuigan Producer: Caroline Wood Writer: Mark Mills Director of Photography: Peter Sova Cast: Willem Dafoe, Paul Bettany, Brian Cox, Gina McKee, and Vincent Cassel Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew.

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Review by: Laurel Williams
3/5/04

At first glance, The Reckoning might seem like an interesting and original film. It features a fine set of actors, an unusual Hollywood setting (the gritty 14th Century), and is a good old-fashioned mystery, with a dose of morality tale mixed in for good measure. But what The Reckoning turns out to be is over-directed, over-written, over-preachy, and unsurprising. You will be much better served to skip The Reckoning all together, and go rent an episode of Cadfael, starring Derek Jacobi as a crime-solving monk in the 14th Century (I guess the premise wasn't that original after all).

Paul Bettany plays Nicholas, a monk who is on the run after being discovered in the act of adultery. He meets up with a troupe of actors, led by Martin (Willem Dafoe), and convinces them to let him join their troupe. They pull into the next town just as a woman is being convicted of murdering a boy. After some time, Martin gets the brilliant idea to act out the story of the boy's murder in the town. When they do, the townspeople go crazy at the suggestion that the boy allowed himself to be lured into the woods by the woman. Nicholas realizes that the evidence against the woman doesn't add up, and he feels compelled to investigate the matter further - they now have an obligation to tell the truth. He feels this even though he is a conflicted character, having sinned mightily himself. But, God bless him, he is still devoted to Truth. He digs up the body of the boy and finds alarming evidence that the woman couldn't have done it! At the same moment he is warned off by the King's Counsel who is already investigating matters (and already knows who did it, though he doesn't say at that moment). But Nicholas can't stand still. Justice must be done, and he fights to stop the execution and put on a play showing the real events of what happened! There's plenty of time in the climax, and in the final confrontation with the bad guy for him to deliver speeches on morality, faith, religion, and justice for all. (Lucky us).

The film is laden with hand-held camera work and shots that are intended to draw attention to the cleverness of the director. The editing jumps around the room, getting all different angles of the characters and often having them speak while their lips aren't moving (no, I'm not talking about intentional voice-over). To make up for the frenetic and constantly moving camera, McGuigan directs the actors to stand still and strike poses. Even the masterful Willem Dafoe doesn't look like he knows what he should be doing. The performances themselves (sans blocking) are not bad, but the writing requires them to speechify and philosophize at every moment, or to look sinisterly out windows for 90% of the movie (Vincent Cassel). The only actor who seemed to be unimpeded by the direction was the effortless Brian Cox -- but that's probably only because he had a smaller role.

In the end, if the writer and director had paid more attention to the mystery, and to making it a good yarn, and less to the philosophy of morality and some "freakin' wicked shots," this may have been a decent film.

(A Paramount Classics release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on March 5, 2004.)