The Green Knight is thoughtful, imaginative and disorienting

The Green Knight is a thoughtful and imaginative retelling of the tale of Sir Gawain, but will its presentation turn off audiences?

In Arthurian England, the countryside is wild and untamed, and Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) has yet to earn his Knighthood. Opportunity knocks on Christmas Day in the form of the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), who challenges any member of the Round Table to a game of exchanging blows — any blow they land on the Green Knight will be repaid a year later. Gawain accepts and beheads the Knight, who stands back to his feet and reminds him of his appointment next year. When that appointment comes , Gawain’s journey towards destiny begins.

Despite what trailers might tell you, don’t go into The Green Knight expecting something like The Lord of the Rings. While it does have the trappings of other movies in this genre, The Green Knight does not seek to replicate the traditional highs and lows of more conventional stories. The film doesn’t spell things out for the viewer. I don’t mean to say that The Green Knight is incomprehensible. The story does follow a linear progression, only X does not cause Y. It is more like X, and then Y, and then Z, then an unknown character from a lost language.

The main quest is divided in multiple, loosely connecting vignettes, and it’s up to the viewer to make sense of them. The challenges Gawain faces more often than not test his mind and soul rather than his wit and strength. Some of these challenges are of consequence to the rest of the story while others — though interesting — don’t have much bearing on it.

Another element in The Green Knight that adds to this uneasily sense of ambiguity is the editing. For one, scenes will transition from one setting to another very suddenly. One of the early scenes has Gawain speaking with King Arthur at his throne, with the rest of the Knights in squared tables in front. Then King Arthur stands to speak, the camera turns behind him, and all of a sudden we are at the Roundtable. This can be confusing. The quickness of it can often make you feel unbalanced or lost. I appreciate how that cuts the fat, removing the need for establishing shots by just zooming to where the action is next, but it’s still disorienting by design.

Then there are some scenes that will splice in moments from other sequences. The early Roundtable scene as another example: We’ve got King Arthur making a speech to his Knights, and while this happens we also see moments of a ritual that Gawain’s mother is performing. These snippets are presented without explanation; we’re not sure exactly why Gawain’s mother is performing this ritual, the movie doesn’t tell us. Instead, we have to interpret what’s going on. The dots are easy enough to connect, but there are many other details left unaddressed, and mystery hangs over all.

These elements may repel audiences who want more clarity, but I want to encourage people not to be put off by feeling confused, because I think there is a lot of worthwhile stuff in The Green Knight. While the story lacks the traditional beats of a satisfying fantasy film, the characters and visuals still deliver on a grand sense of adventure that is pretty fun, if a little unpleasant at times.

The performances are all top-notch. Dev Patel is charismatic as Gawain, a young hero with a lot to prove. We also see the insecurity and fears that hide under the surface. The supporting cast does a fine job of bringing to life the many characters Gawain meets along the way. Some of my favorites were Alicia Vikander as the menacing and seductive Essel and Barry Keoghan as the Scavenger, who delivers a humorous monologue in a long shot as he stumbles through a smoldering battlefield.

There’s more I could say — I loved the design of the Green Knight himself and the way he’s constantly kept in the shadows, and the heavy use of colored lights — but you get the idea. The Green Knight has a lot of interesting things to show audiences, and it is my hope that they will brave the perplexing presentation to appreciate it. The guy some seats across from me in the theater couldn’t, but he snored very softly at least. Perhaps you can succeed where he failed, O honorable knight.

Grade: B

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