Joplin Morgan

If I had written this review when walking out of the theater, I would probably have given it a 7/10. A strong cast, gorgeous filmography and sympathetic lead is weighed down by an unruly plot, with some scenes lasting entirely too long and a constant feeling that I’m waiting for our hero to really impress me by taking up glory. He never does. The modern moviegoer in me wants something more influenced by the heroes journey. But this movie is adapted from a poem written well before the monomyth had its grip on the throat of modern media. In fact, this film does almost nothing to satisfy your expectations, instead it bucks contemporary hallmarks to tell a humbling and potent tale with unwavering faithfulness to itself. Is it what you want it to be? Probably not. Is it worth watching? Overwhelmingly yes. The reason I rank this a 5/5 is because when I couldn’t sleep after seeing it, I caught myself at 4 am going over it in my head, scene by scene, decoding it’s details, wringing out the meanings that saturate this film. (Also, if someone rates a film, but admits that they left before it was over, can they really give it an informed rating?)