2 stars out of 4
Added 5/6/2009
The Bottom Line:
A dull, stupid, and--above all--obvious murder mystery of a film, The Reckoning may intrigue you with the premise of a whodunnit set in medieval England, but the awful execution and ridiculous climax will be sure to diminish any interest you may have had: read the book (Barry Unsworth's "Morality Play") instead of wasting your time here.
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Wonderful film.
Added 10/24/2008
I've watched this movie 3 times & it is a great period piece with a good story.
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Surprisingly good!
Added 5/14/2007
This was a hopeful tragedy. I bought this because I love Matthew Macfadyen movies. And although he does not have a large role in this-- I found the entire film rather enjoyable. Paul Bettany is excellent! The cinematography is raw -- you can feel the cold and almost taste the grit -- and the story is beautiful. How it all enfolds... well let's just say, I thought the film surprisingly good.
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Amazon Incorrect Aspect Ratio
Added 4/19/2007
I don't own the DVD, but am considering buying it. The aspect ratio of the DVD is listed by Amazon as being 1.66:1; this is probably a mistake. Amazon UK states 2.35:1 as the aspect ratio of their DVD version (this is the correct aspect ratio of the movie). Can anyone comment if the US version is also 2.35:1 and if it is an anamorphic transfer? As for the movie itself, it is a thriller unusually set in medieval times, beautifully photographed with excellent performances by Willem Dafoe and Paul Bettany. 4 stars.
UPDATE May 23, 2007
I've bought a Region 4 version... For those who care, the transfer is a great-looking Anamorphic Widescreen one with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This is most probably the same as Region 1, so the aspect ratio info posted by Amazon is incorrect. I should also mention that the DVD case does not state that the Widescreen transfer is anamorphic/enhanced for 16X9 TVs, although it is!
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More Character Piece Than Thriller
Added 3/9/2007
THE RECKONING is one of those films that grows on you as you continue watching. Shakespearean in quality, and beautifully filmed in Andalucia, Spain and at Hedingham Castle near Essex, England, the 14th century period piece is given over to some excellent shots of the landscape as well as some impressive acting.
Paul Bettany (THE DA VINCI CODE) stars as Nicholas, a priest on the lam after fornicating with a married woman and then accidentally killing her husband in self-defense. Hiding out in the forest, Nicholas encounters a troupe of hard-worn actors traveling between towns. Amongst them is their new leader Martin (Willem Dafoe, THE BOONDOCK SAINTS), Tobias (Brian Cox, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS), Sarah (Gina McKee, MIRRORMASK), and Stephen (Simon McBurney, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND). Initially unwilling to take on a new person, the company neglects Nicholas' advances to join up with them. But through persistence, they eventually take him into their confidence.
Nicholas moves farther and farther away from his old township but closer and closer to danger as his morality catches up with him via a deaf, healer wrongfully accused of killing a young boy. Martin (Dafoe), tired of doing the same old religious plays, decides to visit the condemned woman to find out whey she did it and to see if they can make a new stage show out of it. Nicholas accompanies him and what they discover is chilling. They both know she couldn't have done it via time-frames and her location at the time of the murder. But they can't go against the leader of the town, Lord De Guise (Vincent Cassel, OCEAN'S TWELVE), who's legal council has already convicted her.
When the new play runs for the first time, the townspeople shout it down, telling the players that the boy couldn't have died at the hands of the healing, deaf woman. Faced with revealing Lord De Guise's wrongful imprisonment and perhaps exposing someone close to his Lordship, the acting company must make a self-sacrificing decision. And it is during this time that Nicholas' dirty little secret about why he left his hometown comes seeping out.
More a character piece than its labeled "thriller/action" genre, The Reckoning has some strong performances from Dafoe, Cox, Bettany and the perfectly evil Cassel.
The downside to the story is that it takes a while (quite a while) to get moving. But for those who hang in there til the end, the reward is worth it.
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