Paul McGuigan's "The Reckoning" takes us back to the 14th century. Paul Bettany is Nicholas, a priest guilty of adultery who goes on the lam and joins a group of traveling actors. This troupe is a serious lot, always on the verge of starvation and plagued by infighting when they're not putting on poorly received reenactments of Bible stories to indifferent provincial audiences.
Willem Dafoe leads the actors, and the physical intensity of his performance is compelling – especially his bodily contortions that suggest a form of medieval yoga. Gina McKee plays his quiet, concerned sister. She does not get to say much, but perhaps that is authentic of the times, and she does look beautiful. Her quiet attraction to the priest (Bettany) adds a little romantic tension to the film. Fine actor Brian Cox is another performer in the troupe.
"The Reckoning" looks authentic – and that is interesting. Life certainly was harder back then, dirtier too. The story, however, based on Barry Unsworth's novel "Morality Play" (a far better title) is not so interesting. When the Priest discovers a string of unsolved murders, he risks his life to find the answers before you can say "The Name of the Rose." There is a deaf woman locked in a dirty cellar about to be hanged, and the histrionics and sinister atmosphere get revved up high. Willem Dafoe does the right thing and comes to the priest's aid, the mystery of abused power is solved, and in the final scene French actor Vincent Cassel delivers a laughable soliloquy about his place in the world. Then the flames come, and mercifully, the credits.
