by John Zenoni
A24 is an independent film company that has produced many cutting-edge, different and boundary-pushing films such as ‘A Most Violent Year’, ‘Ex Machina’, ‘Dark Places’, ‘Room’, ‘The Witch’ (horrifying), ‘Green Room’, ‘Moonlight’, ‘The Lobster’, ‘It Comes at Night’, ‘A Ghost Story’ and many, many others. They've really made some great films in the past 8 years or so. Well, they really pushed the boundaries with - of all films - ‘The Green Knight’, a story based on the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table. I'll get to the reason I say that in a bit.
First of all, I'm a huge fan of Dev Patel - so good in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘Hotel Mumbai’, and especially, ‘Lion’ - so I was already excited going into this film. Plus, I'd heard critics were raving over it so figured it had to be good. Wrong! Everyone tells me, ‘If critics love it, forget it.’ I definitely should have followed that advice this time around. This was without a doubt one of the strangest films I've seen in a long time. I don’t even know how to accurately describe it as it had a story, of course, but it was just full of images, symbolism, religious (and not so religious) references, flashbacks, etc.
Patel plays Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew, who's invited to sit at the round table and upon doing so is asked to tell of a daring accomplishment he has participated in. At that moment - and many believe his mother, who appears to have magical powers or is a witch and summoned him - the Green Knight appears. Everyone is invited to participate in a ‘game’ with him where one person can strike him but that person will have to be given the same strike back a year to the day. Thinking only of proving his bravery and courage in front of everyone, Sir Gawain volunteers to play in the game and decides to cut off the head of the Green Knight, not thinking about the repercussion, which is that he will also be struck the same way a year later. During the next year, Patel’s character - who is really a self-centered and selfish person and hurts many around him, decides to go find and face the Green Knight and show his bravery to his family and kingdom.
So needless to say, in a nutshell, the 2 1/2 hours spent in this film is watching Dev Patel try to find The Green Knight so he can take his punishment for something he did a year earlier. While on his journey he encounters many people, beings, animals, etc. The most shocking moment comes at a part in the film where he encounters a Lord and Lady who welcome him in to stay for awhile. It's during this stay that a scene occurs that didn't hit me until after it happened and I had to look it up after to see if it was what I thought it was. I just can't believe it! Totally uncalled for and not necessary. But with that being said, even without the scene I would still not recommend this film as it is long and drawn-out and very confusing.
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