The Reckoning *** (2002, Willem Dafoe, Paul Bettany, Brian Cox, Tom Hardy, Gina McKee, Vincent Cassel, Marián Aguilera) – Classic Movie Review 670

Paul Bettany scores in director Paul McGuigan’s 2002 medieval murder-mystery film The Reckoning as Nicholas, a 14th-century English fugitive priest hiding out with a troupe of actors, who travel from town to town performing their morality play. He witnesses the murder of a travelling performer and later is initiated into the troupe as a player, replacing the murdered man.

They arrive in a town where a boy has been killed and a deaf-mute young girl is sentenced to death for witchcraft and his murder. Discarding the expected Bible stories, the actors try to find a killer by staging a play based on the murder.

Cue a repertory company of good performances for this suspenseful, atmospheric, well-done medieval mystery, It is carefully and attractively made, mostly in Almeria in southern Spain, by Bettany’s director on the 2000 film Gangster No 1, Paul McGuigan. There is also location filming in England at St Mary’s Church, Edlesborough, Buckinghamshire, and Hedingham Castle, Essex, and in Wales.

Despite all the hard work and its very considerable watchability as a serous-minded entertainment, there is a better film trying to get out here, and it pales into insignificance beside the similar The Name of the Rose. Nevertheless it has its attractions both for the performances, the striking visuals, and the engrossing, unusual story. The screenplay is by Mark Mills, based on the 1995 novel Morality Play by Barry Unsworth.

A very fit and wiry Willem Dafoe is an asset and scores strongly as Martin, the leader of the band of actors. Brian Cox as Tobias, Tom Hardy as Straw, Gina McKee as Sarah, and Vincent Cassel as Lord De Guise also stand out in a power cast.

The spaghetti westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West were also filmed Almeria in Spain, along with Sexy Beast, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Conan the Barbarian and Four Lions.

The cast are Paul Bettany as Nicholas, Willem Dafoe as Martin, Brian Cox as Tobias, Gina McKee as Sarah, Simon McBurney as Stephen, Tom Hardy as Straw, Stuart Wells [George Wells] as Springer, Ewen Bremner as Simon Damian, Mark Benton as Sheriff, Hamish McColl as Innkeeper, Matthew Macfadyen as King’s Justice, Marián Aguilera as Nicholas’s lover, Trevor Steedman as the cuckold husband, and Vincent Cassel as Lord De Guise.

Lord De Guise is a similar character to the 15th-century serial child killer Gilles de Rais, whom Cassel played in the 1999 film The Messenger.

The films of Paul McGuigan: The Acid House (1998), Gangster No 1 (2000), The Reckoning (2003), Wicker Park (2004), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Push (2009), Victor Frankenstein (2015), and Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017).

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 670

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