The Green Knight review: Dev Patel stirs up the hornet's nest, emerges victorious
Dev Patel as Sir Gawain in 'The Green Knight'
The creative liberties that David Lowery takes--in terms of historical revisionism--in his fantasy drama 'The Green Knight' is the kind of art that makes cinema a truly fascinating experience. Both as a visually exciting medium, and also in essence.
Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) is a whore-house-frequenting, liquor-chugging 'young' protagonist who's navigating life one reckless day at a time. “I am not ready yet!” he exclaims when asked to shoulder the responsibity of becoming a knight by King Arthur (Sean Harris).
In the opening shot a young Gawain is locked in embrace with a free-spirited Essel (Alicia Vikander), shattering the idea that the viewers are in for a long-drawn period drama. David Lowery is in it for the unseen, unheard version of how Sir Gawain has been perceived thus far. And yes, he succeeds.
On Christmas Eve--they are calling this chapter 'The Christmas Game'--an imposing rider (Ralph Ineson) with a protruding face and echoing voice, shows up at the entrance to the hall where the merrymaking happens, wanting to play a bloody game of his own making wherein Gawain must slit his throat and come back for another brawl a year later. To his Green Castle, hence the title.
'The Green Knight' is a fantasy within a fantasy world, weaved by the fantastical David Lowery. The namelessness of the crucial players in the movie, including the poet who had originally written this riddle of a poem, as folklores often go, renders a sense of intrigue to the drama and we are hooked! Instead of plucking a leaf out of a particular reading out of Gawain’s journey, this piece of work serves as a meditation on the quest for meaning, direction and the lessons life has to impart. All the while leaving the audience scratching their heads over reality and illusion--both captivating, both hypnotizing.
The highlight of 'The Green Knight' is a sequence in which decades have gone by and an aging Gawain has now reduced himself into an unkind leader; oblivious to the charm of women. This bit reiterates the inevitability of life, age and death. In that order, through stunning videography and believable prosthetics.
Patel is a chameleon in this movie--swiftly juggling between youthful exuberance and stone-heartedness only a life lived far too long can teach a man. The butterfly in this cinematic beauty is, however, Oscar-winning British actor Alicia Vikander. "You will be my lady, and I will be your man," she declares, nonchalantly. Emancipation of women in medieval history? That's what the world needs more of! Sarita Choudhury, as the legend goes, is Gawain's 'witch' of a mother, Morgan le Fay. Her deep-set eyes, angular face and that deathly stare makes her the enchantress she sets out to be.
In 'The Green Knight', Dev Patel's Sir Gawain has a peculiar quality about him--that he wants to know how to live before living. Yes, it is but human to seek the un-seekable, desire the unachievable. Along the way, what domen gainand what have theylost? This film is an ode to that unquenchable thirst for internal fulfilment through external validation. After all, as King Arthur says, "Is it wrong to want greatness?"