Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Peasant boy with gift for jousting tries to overcome class differences.
Biased, pithy comments: This is a big mess of a summer movie. It's got such grand ambitions and so many characters it can't do it all justice. Even with some clear cuts, it's overlong and lingers too long on certain ideas. Ledger is fine, if simple, and Sossamon can barely speak her lines, much less sell them, but everyone else in this film is knock-down great and clearly enjoying themselves as they belt out this goofy yet familiar tale of a hero with ambition to win at a sport. Complaints can be levelled at the length, the uneven writing, and the fact that jousting is a pretty simple sport (as they portrayed it; I ached for more strategy like they had near the beginning). Still, it moves, it has great costumes (oh, I want Colville's leather duster), you're never bored, you have fun, you laugh a lot, and you're swept away now and then by the jazz of the crowd and (dare I say it) the rolling rock'n'roll score. It ain't history by any stretch, but it's fun.
Other Notes: Fraser is by far the better actress and more of a hottie; what was Ledger thinking?
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, Paul Bettany, Laura Fraser, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk.
Directed by: Brian Helgeland