The Reckoning (2003/I)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Paul McGuigan

Writers:

Barry Unsworth (novel)
Mark Mills (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 February 2004 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The truth shall come to light

Plot:

A priest on the lam takes up with a traveling band of actors, who then discover a murder has occurred and try to solve it by recreating the crime in a play.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Priest | Actor | Play | Town

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Paul Bettany	...	Nicholas
Marián Aguilera	...	Nicholas' Lover
Trevor Steedman	...	Jealous Husband
Simon McBurney	...	Stephen
Tom Hardy	...	Straw
Brian Cox	...	Tobias
Willem Dafoe	...	Martin
Gina McKee	...	Sarah
Stuart Wells	...	Springer (as George Wells)
Vincent Cassel	...	Lord De Guise
Elvira Mínguez	...	Martha
Richard Durden	...	Town Justice
Ewen Bremner	...	Simon Damian
Mark Benton	...	Sheriff
Hamish McColl	...	Innkeeper

Also Known As:

El misterio de Wells (Spain)
Morality Play

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality and violent images.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

UK | Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Germany:12 | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Australia:M | Canada:14A

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Kanzaman

Trivia:

.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Several times in the last scenes, the positions of Lord De Guise and Nicholas change suddenly. De Guise's dialogue also continues when his mouth is clearly shut. This is a deliberate dramatic decision.

Quotes:

Lord De Guise: Do you really believe that your God has the power to protect you?
Nicholas: No. Nor the inclination.
Lord De Guise: Ah. Then what kind of God is that?
Nicholas: The kind who allows innocent children to be murdered.

Haunting and unsettling

I've watched this movie 4 times in the last three days, and I'm still not sure I've grokked all of its subtleties yet. Beautiful, yes -- the village set is a series of enclosures, mazes within mazes, that contribute to the entrapped mood surrounding the characters. Even in the scenes outside the village, the woods and hills close in around the actors, like the enfolding wings and backdrops of a stage. The closeups are unsettlingly revealing - filthy fingers with smooth nails using a sharp, rough flint to cut hair down to the scalp....dark eyes revealing everything and nothing....a hand laid caressingly near the jugular....strong fingers....and Paul Bettany's disturbing blue eyes. I can't say enough about Bettany's take on the outcast priest -- he manages moral outrage and submissive pathos with equal ease, and his smiles always have a hint of tears behind them. A haunting performance -- I would go across the world to see Bettany play Hamlet or Macbeth.