A Knights Tale (From Western Telegraph)

A Knights Tale

Director: Brian Helgeland

Starring: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, Paul Bettany Cert. PG; Dur. 132 mins

I think its worth saying that if Id seen A Knights Tale when I was ten years old I would have loved it.

Id have got it out on video as soon as possible and watched it all the time, especially when Id managed to convince my mum that I was too ill to go to school. Id watch it in the morning then by lunchtime Id be missing the playground football, so dramatically Id recover in time for a kick around.

The point is that this film of medieval adventure is one that parents or adults will find it hard not to enjoy but kids (little boys with dirty knees, jumpers for goal posts, marvellous! etc.) will love.

Film hasnt returned to times of chivalry with anything like the success or glamour that it should have. There have been attempts at historical but nonetheless Hollywood swords and horses fayre like Braveheart, but apart from the oddly messy, but incredibly well designed, First Knight (with Richard Gere playing a part and wearing hair that he was surely a quarter of a century too old for) there hasnt been anything in the style of the post Errol Flynn 50s Ivanhoe, or King Arthur.

So, here is A Knights Tale. Aussie surf dude Heath Ledger plays William Thatcher, a peasant from as much aristocratic lineage as Big Brothers Bubble. When the Knight to whom he is a squire (lance carrier) dies, Thatcher decides to give the jousting lark a go and discovers, like King Arthurs old pal, that its good to lance-a-lot.

So he pretends to be a knight and teams up with Brit actor Paul Bettany who, would you believe, (you wont - I must warn you) plays Chaucer, a drunken, gambling nudist and English poet. Thatcher manages to avoid death from the point of rival, Rufus Sewell, through several Rocky-style bouts around rural France before making his way home to a computer generated medieval London where he has his title fight, the big showdown.

Oh, theres some girl, or should I say maiden in it too. You can imagine the kind of thing and will know what I mean when I say that it doesnt really matter that the story and characters are a bit thin. Obviously wed like every film to be a classic, a masterpiece, but they arent, so were programmed to recognise the signs of a fun family movie early on in the first reel and must enjoy it. A Knights Tale is fun but its got something really wrong with it.

This film is written and co-produced by Brian Helgeland, the man who wrote LA Confidential. Even as I wrote that I was amazed. LA Confidential exhibits perfect taste, which must have come from Curtis Hanson, its director, because the huge failing with A Knights Tale is a question of taste or more specifically the Hook factor.

The armour isnt shiny or head to foot, but dull and dented and the peasants are dirty and hessian clad instead of in tastefully Hollywood pastel tones. They look more real in other words. But during the jousting they break into Queens We will, we will rock you! and Mexican waves. In fact there are many anachronisms in this films design, gags you might call them, they certainly made me gag. This trend I call the Hook factor, after Spielbergs Peter Pan-bad day at the office with the lost boys skateboarding and playing basketball. I hate this kind of thing. If youre going to jazz up a genre or a story then go the whole way (see Baz Luhrmanns Romeo and Juliet).

Stylise everything. I just feel that in A Knights Tale Brian Helgeland lost his nerve or had the idea at the last minute because a bit of new style just makes it annoying and a mess.

Apart from that, which wont worry some people, especially the youngest audience members, the film is really good fun. Of course, it has the technology to show jousting in greater violent detail than ever before and Ledger though not setting the screen on fire, is good enough to make this family adventure a journey you dont mind watching.