We begin our tale with our hero: Sir Gawain. Dev Patel has become one of Britain’s finest actors over the past decade. After splashing onto the scene with the BBC show “Skins” and later the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire,” his boyish impetuosity and endless charm has all been leading here. In many ways, he was born to play this part of a young man destined for great things but unsure of himself in the process. He gives Gawain a complexity that makes his selfish or faulty moments more empathetic. When his mother implores him to consider his future, we can’t help but hear our parents when we were teens.
Some of you may not be knowledgeable of medieval literature, lord knows I had to brush up on mine when going to my screening. If you have even a passing acquaintance with Arthurian legend, most viewers will be able to follow along. The journey that we are taken on is sumptuous enough to make up for any lack of exposition. From castles to misty forests the atmosphere is so palpable you will feel an autumnal chill. And the color palette of dark yellows, burgundy and petrol blue only aim to fit that climate.
A lot of the film plays like a tone poem, preferring symbols to out and out explaining itself. Alicia Vikander plays two different characters in an almost modern dialogue about the nature of chivalry. Actor Joel Edgerton as a lord that takes in Gawain almost mirrors Ralph Ineson as our title verdant foe, an allusion to events in the poem. An episode involving St. Winfried, which is only a few lines, makes a lengthened ghostly appearance here with a memorable performance by Erin Kellyman last seen in “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.”
All this may sound esoteric, but a patient audience can just let the visuals wash over them. When we are introduced to the court of Arthur, we don’t need to have them named to us. Director David Lowery just had to show us Arthur, Guinevere and Merlin; almost beyond recognizable at this point. The round table and knights all are present as requisite. But this is Sir Gawain’s story, not theirs. Only a hint at such things is needed to ground us.
David Lowery has made a living on conceptualizing myth and legend on the big screen. From his first film 2013’s “Aint Them Bodies Saints” to his last film 2018’s “The Old Man & The Gun,” he has reveled in American outlaw folklore. He took a shaggy old Disney tale and turned it into one of the best and, sadly, least seen remake with “Pete’s Dragon.” Both of the last two starred Robert Redford, a man who isn’t a stranger to outlaws or American myth making. But it is his following film, 2017’s “A Ghost Story,” where Lowery truly hit his stride. A tale both small and immense, frequent collaborators Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play a couple where he dies in the beginning and she must move on from there. And Affleck transforms into a Charlie Brown spirit complete with sheet and dark cut-out eye holes. The idea of which is so silly when I read it on paper, but to watch what Lowery does with it is nothing short of a cinematic miracle.
And that brings us here to his finest work. His sweeping sense of scale is evident from talking foxes to stone-colored giants. However, this is not your average epic fantasy a la “Game of Thones” or “Lord of the Rings.” But regardless of that, I implore you to take this journey in the theaters. And for your courage, the rewards are beyond words. Merry viewing, readers.
