The Green Knight came highly recommended. I went in wanting to love it, but left disappointed. The cinematography and visual execution in the film are outstanding (with the exception of the weakly CGI'd fox). The movie drops the viewer into a fully realized medieval fantasy, complete with talking creatures, witchcraft, a ghost, and even a traveling crew of giants in a segment that made little sense. It's fortunate that the scenes are so dazzling, because you'll be staring at them a while. The movie trudges along for over two hours.
For plot, the Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's unaccomplished nephew who appears to spend much of his time drinking or fraternizing with a prostitute he fancies but is unwilling to progress the relationship any further beyond transactional. On Christmas, at the King's feast, the eponymous Green Knight appears, a creature with a human shape but made of trees and plants. He proposes a game: anyone who strikes him will receive his powerful ax, but in one year, that individual must go to the Green Knight's home, an earthen chapel, and receive the same strike in return. Gawain beheads the Green Knight, achieving instant fame throughout the kingdom. As the following year slips away, Gawain then faces his obligations and sets off on the journey to meet the Green Knight.
It's a film that asks Big Questions, about the meaning of being human and facing one's death, about honor, duty, and chivalry, and even about love. After raising these issues early on, once Gawain begins his travels, the film then instead forefronts the slog of the journey. Maybe the unpleasantness of duty is part of the point, but it's not enjoyable viewing either. Several of the stops along the way seem nothing more than pretty, pretentious asides - dreamlike aspects of the film's world that they just couldn't cut during editing - rather than necessary portions of plot. The movie was stuffed with these aspects and overlong as a result, resulting in a viewing experience that felt tedious by the time the credits rolled.
