Review: A Knight's Tale

If you didn't know that the same guy who co-wrote LA Confidential wrote and directed A Knight's Tale, you wouldn't believe it. Merrie Old England may never recover from this amusing collision between American teen/pop culture and the brawling, allegedly chivalrous jousts of the 14th century. It would be worth a trip to London to sit in a British cinema and watch jaws drop. (Just hang on a bit. The really good stuff starts coming out next week.) SPOILAGE WARNING: Plot is discussed, but not ending. (Read more.)

The tone is set right away when the film opens with Queen belting out "We Will Rock You" -- at a jousting match. (And the movie ends with a song by AC/DC, probably not what the Knights of the Round Table were tapping their toes to.)

The movie is dead-aimed at teens -- girls who'll sigh over Australia's Heath Ledger, playing the commoner who follows his bliss, pretends to be a knight, and tries to win the lady's heart; and boys who enjoy watching horses, lances and knights slamming into one another for the better part of two hours. The computer renderings of jousting stadiums and olde cities are nice.

It's a silly movie, but knowingly silly, and it's also entertaining and -- even, at moments -- inventive. Brian Helgeland is winking at the old Camelot myths; A Knight's Tale doesn't take itself seriously for a moment.

William, our hunky hero (introduced to American audiences in the cheesy The Patriot), is shocked to discover the body of the dead knight he serves after a tournament. Seizing the moment, and looking and sounding exactly like a Disney prince rather than the poor street kid he allegedly is (his poor thatcher Dad is frequently invoked as hokey inspiring spirit). He dons his armor, practices for a few weeks with his buddies, starts piling up tournament champsionships, falls in love with Lady Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), encounters some royalty, and runs afoul of the evil Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell). The problem is that only nobility have the right to have their heads knocked off in tournaments, and unmasking will lead to the stocks or worse.

Jocelyn is a poor choice for William for several reasons. First off, she's noble and he isn't, a relationship issue. Second, she's a twit, demanding at one point that he permit himself to get clobbered by other jousters to prove his love for her. Third, Count Adhemar (yes, his armor is black and he is nasty to his horse) is also in love with her, and deeply suspicious of William's lineage. William and his buddies, played by Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk (with a winning turn by Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer, here portrayed as a writer, poet and gambling addict), understand that if they are found out, William will go straight to the stocks at the center of computer-animated Tudor London.

Revealing any more of the story would be unnecessary spoilage, though frankly, nobody will be on the edge of his seat with suspense about the outcome. Still, the movie is good-hearted, and since the good stuff doesn't roll out until next week, it's good for a few laughs. The teen movie has been a distinct and popular subgenre for several years now, but A Knight's Tale is genuinely groundbreaking: it would hardly have seemed possible to fuse that genre with this oft-told yarn, turning Geoffrey Chaucer into a player in a teen buddy yarn. But Hollywood has risen to the occasion.