The Reckoning Movie Review

Starting out as a cunning variation on the crime thriller, this medieval mystery (set in England at the end of the 14th century) moves with dramatic vigor and an engrossing build. Too bad it gets bogged down in the final reckoning, with grand themes and indulgent speechmaking designed to ensure we get the message. We do, but it brings out the worst in our performers.

Putting the tale into motion is Nicholas (Paul Bettany), an earnest but lustful priest who is caught bedding a married woman of his flock and fleeing from his town in disgrace. On the road without any prospects, he encounters a troupe of itinerant actors making their way from town to town and earning their keep by staging scenes out of the Bible for an entertainment-deprived, rural public. Offering his limited skills, Nicholas convinces Martin (Willem Dafoe), the troupe's main man, to accept him into the ensemble against Tobias's (Brian Cox) grousing against it. Martin's sister Sarah (Gina McKee), on the other hand, is quick to overcome her initial distrust and soon develops a growing affection for the fair-haired newbie. As her eyes increasingly fasten on him, she brings a hint of sexual tension to the scenario.

When they arrive at a small town ruled by an overlord, they learn that an attractive woman, a deaf mute, is to be hanged for murdering a young boy. Watching the crowd gathering around the condemned figure from a castle that dominates the community is its slimy ruler, Lord Robert de Guise (Vincent Cassel, Irréversible). When certain facts about the crime come to Martin's and Nicholas' attention, they begin to wonder if the unfortunate woman did, indeed, commit the crime.

Contradicting what we expect of such an unempowered group in England's dark ages, the band of players cast themselves as real live investigators. Martin and Nicholas arrange an in-cell interview with the accused before she's marched to the gallows and, after uncovering her side of the story, Martin sees the possibilities in it for a new bit of staged subject matter, a major departure from traditional (Biblical) sources. Are we witnessing the first historical example of grass-roots activism and totalitarian uprisings? Calling his play The Murder Of Thomas Wells, he dares to devise a script and set of characters to recreate the crime, expose the cover-up, and rouse the people to rebel against the injustice that's about to be committed by the powerful political figures of the town.

The villains who seek to escape guilt by scapegoating the innocent are unmasked. The vileness of their depravity resonates markedly with recently exposed sex crimes of the modern church. It's a medieval detective story with a theatrical twist borrowing from today's headlines. As directed by Paul McGuigan from a script by Mark Mills adapted from the novel of Barry Unsworth, it develops considerable tension as a new set of heroes act with clever determination to correct an injustice. The Dalai Lama couldn't have done it any better.

Peter Sova's cinematography captures detail and textures while richly balancing obscure interior darkness against the bright light of day. His tonal desaturation in portraiture of people and photography of landscape are effective contributions to the bleak nature of the subject, as are those from all supporting technical departments.

Dafoe, Bettany, and Cox are actors who, it may be said, are masters at stretching a moment. Let loose, each one has been guilty of milking a scene enough to feed a nursery. Through most of this scenario, however, the exacting requirements of the story seems to have kept them in fine disciplinary control, and they deliver tightly controlled performances... until their impulses are unchained in the last act. The inevitable confrontation between the good guys and the fiendish perpetrator (the title moment) brings out the highfalutin speeches that are a one-way ticket to melodrama. Self-righteousness abounds, Bettany gives way to his worst tendencies, Defoe demonstrates his double-jointed yoga routine (for some unexplained reason), drama does a backbend, and the originality of the concept is nearly fractured. But, standing up for morality by enacting a play earns some applause for innovation.

I reckon not a lot of people are gonna see this.