Film: Straw and odor

The Reckoning

Rampant superstition, deadly disease and the Inquisition--all in all, the Middle Ages were not a fun time. If you were fortunate enough to skirt both the plague and an agonizing death as a suspected heretic, you still had to face a God so wrathful that people regularly flagellated themselves just to get a jump on Judgment Day.

This grim landscape is the setting for The Reckoning, a medieval murder mystery adapted by Mark Mills from Barry Unsworth's novel Morality Play. Nicholas (Paul Bettany), a conflicted priest with a fondness for earthly pleasures, joins a struggling troupe of itinerant actors who roam 1380s England staging a largely Bible-based repertoire. They're bored ("Oh please, please, not the crucifixion!"), as are their audiences; so when they enter a town where a mute woman (Elvira Minguez) has been sentenced to death for the murder of a local boy, they decide to re-enact her story. Armed only with open minds and a bit of sign language, the troupe uncovers evidence that perfidy--in the form of a Norman lord (Vincent Cassel, complete with cloak and castle)--is afoot.

Scottish director Paul McGuigan--who helmed the stylish but flimsy Gangster No.1--shows a passionate eye for period detail, constructing his medieval town from scratch and photographing it with loving intimacy. But the combination of 14th century aesthetic and a screenplay leaden with theological speechifying has encouraged his actors to play to the gallery. Vibrating with pretentiousness, most of the cast--even the magnificent Willem Dafoe--seem ignorant of their own silliness. Or the need for an arch line reading here and there.

Painstaking as it is, The Reckoning is a dull and wordy celebration of the artist as bearer of truth to the ignorant masses. Weighed down by symbolism, the movie cries out for a director with distance. If only Mel Brooks had heeded the call.--Jeannette Catsoulis

Once upon a Weinstein

When it comes to fresh, funny, fractured fairy tales, Ella Enchanted is a wannabe. Miramax Films' Cinderella spoof, based on Gail Carson Levine's novel and narrated by Eric Idle, is a weak attempt to recycle superior cinematic fables (Shrek, The Princess Bride).

Once upon a time, fairy godmother Lucinda (Vivica A. Fox, beleaguered with another "talk-to-the-hand" sistah role) gave baby Ella the "gift" of obedience. Though Lucinda's blessing becomes a curse, grown-up Ella (Anne Hathaway) is feisty at heart (the indomitable spirit bit is just a tweaking of Hathaway's Princess Diaries misfit).

After her father (Patrick Bergin) marries harridan Dame Olga (Joanna Lumley, restraining her "Absolutely Fabulous" bitchiness), Ella suffers various indignities, courtesy of Olga's spiteful spawn Hattie (Lucy Punch, lackluster as the conniving, yet stupid chick) and Olive (Jennifer Higham, in a bland, dimwit portrayal that makes Jessica Simpson seem like the new Janeane Garofalo).

Determined to find Lucinda to break the spell, Ella enlists inept house fairy Mandy (Minnie Driver, wallowing in dullness), who provides a "magic book/road map/people finder" (Jimi Mistry, managing a few prize bons mots).

During her quest, Ella picks up a travel companion, Slannen (Aidan McArdle, occasionally humorous as the would-be Johnny Cochran of Elves), falls reluctantly for Prince "Char" (Hugh Dancy, gorgeous but predictable, as a Jim Morrisonesque royal) and witnesses the social injustices stemming from mean-spirited decrees by interim ruler Sir Edgar (Cary Elwes). Finally, our heroine mechanically approaches "happily ever after" at Char's coronation festivities.

Shrek and Princess Bride spun straw into gold by weaving traditional myth elements (fantastic creatures, journey of discovery, happy ending) with delightful genre-defying aspects (unlikely, introspective heroes, assertive, skeptical heroines and Borscht Belt/Comedy Central humor). Awash in derivativeness, Tommy O'Haver's film fails to make such magic.--Tammy McMahan