Writer / director David Lowery's The Green Knight is a beautiful puzzle, whose visual elements might over-power the 700-year-old legend's core allegory of triumph over baser concerns. The term "trippy" has been aptly attached to the film.
Dev Patel, who never fails to engage, stars as Sir Gawain, a member of the household of King Arthur (Sean Harris) who is elevated to a seat at the Round Table one Christmas. Emboldened by this demonstration of the king's favor, Gawain accepts a blow-for-blow challenge from the mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), beheads him, and promises the revivified corpse that he will submit to the same blow the following year.
Most the film is about the journey to the knight's Green Chapel, and Gawain's encounters with the mystical and the mundane. Some sequences are opaque, quite disorienting, and will likely leave audiences scratching their chins to parse the meaning. Gawain's visit with the spirit Winifred (Erin Kellyman) and a generous Lord and Lady (Joel Edgerton and Alicia Vikander) are important, dreamy encounters whose meanings may become more apparent as time passes.
The film is stunning and frustrating, taking viewers on a quite a trek but we're not sure where we are once we've arrived.
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