08 January 2011

Didn't like it

From Jeannette Catsoulis' succinct 6 January 2011 NY Times review of Season of the Witch ("a 14th-century road movie with 21st-century cuss words") -
Tired of hacking infidels and pleasuring wenches, two deserters from the Crusades (...) agree to transport an accused witch (...) to a remote abbey to stand trial.

Accompanied by an uptight monk, a ringleted altar boy and a swindler (Stephen Graham, recently seen having much more fun as Al Capone on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire), our heroes traverse a wolf-infested forest, plague-stricken villages and a plot with more holes than a macramé plant holder. Around them, characters converse in period-appropriate dialogue ("We're gonna need more holy water"), while the cinematographer, Amir Mokri, conceals the magnificent Austrian Alps beneath a palette of sludge and fudge. The entire film seems to be happening on the other side of a dirty window — good news for the dreadful computer-generated effects, if not for our eyes.