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 upposedly
based on a story that gave inspiration to not only
Romeo and Juliet, but also the threesome of
Guinevere, Lancelot, and King Arthur,
"Tristan and Isolde" stars James Franco
("The
Great Raid") as Tristan and Sophia Myles
as Isolde, forbidden lovers during the Dark Ages
of the 7th Century. With the
Roman Empire
a memory,
England
lays in ruins, ruled by tribes that fight among
themselves, while the Irish, led by the fiendish
King Donnchadh (David O'Hara) plots their
destruction from across the sea.
Against this backdrop, orphan
boy Tristan is raised by Lord Marke (Rufus
Sewell), a good and noble leader who longs to
unite the Britons against the constantly invading
Irish. A series of events lead Tristan to drift in
the sea, thought dead by his comrades. The English
warrior lands on the beaches of
Ireland
, where young Isolde rescues and nurses him back
to health. Predictably, the two fall in love. By
yet another series of events, Tristan later
returns to
Ireland
as the champion of Marke, who believes he can
unite the Britons if he wins the hand of
Donnchadh's daughter in a contest. Unbeknownst to
Tristan, the woman whose hand he has won for his
Lord is no other than Isolde, setting the stage
for forbidden love, betrayal, and finally,
tragedy.
If it sounds overly
complicated, it's really not. The film breaks down
into essentially two halves -- the first is a
romantic love story between young lovers Tristan
and Isolde, and the second a tragic melodrama
where politics and duty threatens to tear apart
all those involved. It's not until the hour mark
that Isolde becomes betrothed to Marke, setting
the stage for tragedy. Directed by Kevin Reynolds
("Prince of Thieves"), "Tristan and
Isolde" seems to have ambitions of being an
epic adventure in the vein of "Braveheart",
but a PG-13 rating simply won't allow too much
bloodletting, something Reynolds tries mightily to
get around with fast-cutting. For the most part he
succeeds, even if the film still reeks of
"tameness" despite its sometimes
ferocious medieval combat.
Originally slated to be made
by Ridley "King of Medieval Flicks"
Scott in the late '70s (Ridley opted for "Alien"
instead), 2006's "Tristan and Isolde"
falls into the same category as Antoine Fuqua's
2004 film "King
Arthur", in that it's a new take on an
old tale. And like Fuqua's "Arthur",
there is no fantastical element to Reynolds'
movie, as well as a purposeful complete absence of
magic. As such, there's little doubt how the film
will end, and the marketing whiz who sold the film
as "Before there was Romeo and Juliet, there
was Tristan and Isolde" sort of gives away
the film's ending. Geniuses, those Hollywood PR
folks, don't you think?
The performances in
"Tristan and Isolde" are serviceable.
James Franco, who I have always been a fan of,
does well as the brooding Tristan, but it's Sophia
Myles who threatens to take over the film at times
with her smoldering performance. It doesn't hurt
that Myles is gorgeous as the fiery Irish lass,
even if her accent does come and goes throughout
the movie. Rufus Sewell ("Dark
City") is credible as the kind Lord
Marke, whose character is smartly never made into
a villain. The fact that Marke is a sympathetic
figure makes the tragedy all the more tragic, as
we realize that in this love triangle, all three
participants are equally deserving of "Once
upon a time" happy endings.
At over two hours,
"Tristan and Isolde" does come across as
unwieldy at times. As mentioned, the film's main
premise doesn't come to fruition until well past
the hour mark, which leaves about 30 minutes of
Tristan and Isolde sneaking out for passionate sex
in the woods, and another 20 minutes for the
film's compressed climax. A better choice might
have been to make the film longer, or if that
wasn't possible, then some judicious editing of
the first hour to get to the crux of the story
faster. There are also subplots about sibling
rivalry between Tristan and Melot (Henry Cavill)
that never really amounts to very much from an
emotional standpoint.
Fans of melodramatic tales of
love and adventurous daring-do will get a kick out
of "Tristan and Isolde". It's not as
huge in scale and scope as Ridley Scott's costumed
epics, and is, once again, really more along the
lines of the recent "King Arthur", both
in tone and look. The PG-13 rating definitely puts
a crimp on things, as the film is relatively
bloodless despite the medieval combat and Tristan
and Isolde's many couplings never progress beyond
close-ups of nude heads. Apparently the studio
looked at the film's abysmal box office numbers
and decided that assembling an Unrated (or even an
R-Rated) version for DVD sales was not even worth
it. Too bad, because I'm sure the promise of extra
skin from the lovely Miss Sophia Myles, or extra
blood from all the medieval fighting, would have
sold a few more DVDs.
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