It’s time to play: Where Have I Seen This Story Before?

A bearded young man in old-timey times has a distant relationship with his kingly father figure, who expects great things of him. He’s in a state of arrested development and lives with his widowed mother, while his “official” father is never mentioned. The woman he has feelings for wears a lot of jingling bells; she’s a sex worker so they can never actually be together, as that would be bad for his image and the example he’s supposed to set. The young man has a terrible destiny thrust upon him: he must journey forth to die in a set time and place, and if he doesn’t accept that he will lose his integrity and betray the message of his “father” for his people.

[spoiler] For a week the young man suffers physically, mentally, and spiritually, as he struggles with temptation in the forms of sex, selfishness, violence, and talking animals giving him enigmatic messages. He arrives at the place of his doom, prepared to give up his life…then he says “fuck this” and escapes. We see him flee home and live out his life over decades, time skipping faster and faster in a montage. He takes up the adult responsibilities of his father’s business and tries to bury his sense of shame. He gets back with the sex worker but “loses” her when she gives birth. He marries another woman and has a child with her, even if she isn’t the love of his life. He grows old as his world falls apart. Before his delayed death, he is confronted with the knowledge that his weakness and refusal to fulfil his destiny destroyed his “father’s” promised kingdom. [/spoiler]

[spoiler] And then he snaps back to the moment before we saw him flee. This was all a vision of his future if he cowers from his sacrificial death. He submits to his execution and smiles as the movie ends. [/spoiler]

[spoiler] Although this protagonist survives, I think David Lowery owes Martin Scorsese and the estate of Nikos Kazantzakis some money. This was gorgeous to look at and listen to, Dev Patel was spectacular as usual, so two stars for that. You know what I don’t need in my Dark ‘n’ Gritty King Arthur movie? Semen! I had to endure that scene next to my dad! I’m an Arthurian Legend nerd who accepts all kinds of varying iterations of “The Matter of Britain”. But somehow this adaptation had thinner characterization, relationships, story structure, and motivation than the medieval poem, where Gawain wimping out from his quest, like Brave Sir Robin Who Had Nearly Stood Up to the Vicious Chicken of Bristol, is treated as a joke that everyone gets over. [/spoiler]

[spoiler] Speaking of Willem Dafoe movies, in the Year of Our Lord 2021, you can’t include a raspy-human-voiced fox in your film and expect me to take it seriously (and not whisper “chaos…reigns!”). [/spoiler]