The Green Knight (2021 | USA, Ireland | 126 minutes | David Lowery)
Arriving in theaters this weekend after more than a year’s pandemic delay that afforded it time for months of edits, The Green Knight might be the closest thing to “pure cinema” that I’ve enjoyed in a very long time. David Lowery’s lyrical adaptation of the fourteenth century anonymously-written epic poem sprawls across the screen using all the tools at its disposal, making it it easy to see why A24 held out to assure that audience first experienced it as a theatrical experience. It was worth the wait.
As much as the lush cinematography and intricate sound design benefit from two hours in a well-equipped dark room, the primary advantage of retreating from extraneous distractions is allowing yourself to surrender to the pacing and stylistic choices employed in the telling of this “chivalric romance” (in the olden times sense of grand adventure, not true love). While its arrival may feel to some like a breathlessly-awaited arthouse fantasy blockbuster, this triumphant visual feast unfurls much more like the poetry of its source material.
After a whispery iconographic prologue we meet our would-be hero, Gawain, played with limitless magnetism by Dev Patel. Roused for Yuletide Mass with a splash of water to the face, he awakes bleary-eyed in a crowded peasant bunkhouse having slept off a night of heavy drinking and a roll or two in the hay with his consort (Alicia Vikander). His true station in the Kingdom is hinted through the subtle cues of exquisite costume design, but a change of clothing and a seat at the the mythical Round Table soon cements his identity as King Arthur’s layabout nephew.
Attending the feast without his mother, who has other rituals to attend to, he finds himself in awe of the legends who fill the room. However, he deflates upon realizing that his easy life of comfort and pleasure has left him without any grand stories of himself to whisper in his royal uncle’s ear. On cue, that deficit is soon remedied when a hulking supernatural visitor on horseback – the titular Green Knight, half-tree, half-man, all ominous – interrupts the festivities to propose a little Christmas game. Anyone who dares to land a blow against him will be granted exclusive use of his magical axe, provided they swear to return it to him and accept a strike back on the following year.
It seems like a terrible bargain with very limited upside, but the opportunity to prove himself worthy of knighthood is too tantalizing for young Gawain to resist. A rash decision, perhaps, but one that impresses his aging King (Sean Harris) and later his sorceress mother (Sarita Choudhury). He fritters away so much of the ensuing year basking in the glow of his heroic moment, a star in Camelot’s rowdiest pubs, that he has forgotten to gather his courage when it comes time to fulfill his end of the deal. Nevertheless, he garbs himself in chainmail, a golden cloak, and an enchanted belt from his mother and sets off on horseback for a six night ride to meet his fate.
The northward journey across the chilly yet verdant countryside (Ireland stands-in for the original’s Welsh geography) is a knightly narrative marked by human deceptions, foolhardy setbacks, otherworldly challenges, and carnal temptations. Reality bends, hallucinatory visions ensue, magic lurks everywhere. Mushrooms are shown to be a questionable source of late-night nutrition. Giants cross a stark open valley. Lovers unexpectedly reappear in new guises. Joel Edgerton tells an incomprehensible story about a hawk and a horse. Very little in this quest along the uneasy boundaries between paganism and Christianity is what it seems.
Sure, it’s confusing, occasionally goofy, and perhaps something of an overstuffed muddle that avoids easy answers while contemplating big questions (for reassurance, read this “spoiler”-filled Q&A in which Lowery acknowledges the ambiguities and contradictions in his gorgeous film). Still, as episodic storytelling (formerly known as “television”) claims its place as prestige entertainment – be it weekly comic book installations, bingeworthy streaming documentaries, or star-studded limited series – I find myself all the more willing to embrace film as a medium for self-contained weirdness. And while there’s plenty of that here, The Green Knight also feels like a unification of the themes that I’ve adored in Lowery’s previous work. It has the doomed mythmaking of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and The Old Man and the Gun; the sweet fantastical coming-of-age elements (and VFX studio) of his deeply humane take on Pete’s Dragon; and the melancholy contemplation of mortality and eternity that made A Ghost Story sing. With that pedigree, I was happy to sit back and go with the flow.
There’s much to recommend in this medieval tale. Cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo’s opulent interiors, wide open landscapes, mysterious overgrown forests, and destabilizing camera movements that reflect the rises and falls of our hero’s mental fortitude. Frequent musical collaborator Daniel Hart has composed a soundtrack that feels modern while paying tribute to the period, musically deepening uncertainties, indicating breaks from reality, or gently plucking at humorous disbelief in absurd situations.
Ultimately, it’s difficult to overstate the degree to which the film succeeds entirely on the pleasures of watching Dev Patel looking awesome in Malgosia Turzanska’s exquisitely designed medieval threads. A24 is leaning all the way into this angle; so congratulations to whoever bet on the once-awkward teen from the first generation of Skins growing into that stacked cast’s most compelling leading man (see also, his turn in last year’s startlingly great The Personal History of David Copperfield). Gawain could easily come across as a difficult-to-root-for cipher, a rich kid tourist finding pleasures among the poor who motivations for seeking glory are limited to a need to satisfy his stunted personal development. Patel, though, working with Lowery’s generous mix-and-mash script, finds something relatable in Gawain’s yearnings and sympathetic in his motivations to prove himself worthy of the glory he desires even if it means the confronting the end of his own life.
Impatient audiences who approach this shaggy psychedelic storytelling as a puzzle to be solved and references to be decoded might find themselves frustrated and easily fatigued. But those, like Gawain with an indefatigable sense of adventure, a calling to duty, or a willingness to follow a friendly red fox with questionable motivations will certainly find that many rewards await. Although I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it while watching, the more time that passed the more I found myself enchanted and eager to return for another occasion to enjoy this rich tapestry and perhaps untangle a few of its knots.
A24 releases the The Green Knight in theaters on July 30.