Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Brandt Sponseller Both Paul Bettany and Willem Dafoe consistently make quality, often surprising choices, whether they pick "art films" or big, commercial Hollywood films like Firewall and Spider-Man as projects. The Reckoning is no exception. This "medieval thriller" is unusual in many respects, all of them good, and although "thriller" is apt in a way, the focus here is as much on cultural changes in the immediate pre-Renaissance era.Bettany plays Nicholas, a priest who has committed questionable crimes and who has subsequently fled his home and at least outwardly abandoned his calling as he quests for repentance. He meets up with a traveling band of actors whose master player has just died. Martin (Dafoe), the previous master player's son, has inherited the title. Because a bridge is out, they have to take a different path than they intended, and they happen upon a feudal village where a woman has just been convicted of murdering a young boy.Various complications arise, and The Reckoning becomes a quest to solve a series of crimes. At the same time, Nicholas continues on his goal of repentance and we see the beginnings of a cultural clash between progressive, Renaissance-like ideas and the more traditional religious and feudal society. These clashes are even represented within the acting troupe, among different members, and as a struggle within Nicholas.The period/costume drama production design is handled beautifully. Novelist Barry Unsworth and the filmmakers seem to have done a lot of research towards getting various facets of daily life correct for the era. The story is handled very smoothly, and it is complex enough that it could have easily turned into a mess. The settings are gorgeous to look at--much of the film was shot on location in Spain and the UK. And Paul McGuigan's direction and the cast's performances are excellent. Period/costume drama is still a genre that I sometimes have difficulty "sinking into" as a viewer--too often there's kind of a pretentious "this is fine/high drama" vibe given off by those films--but that's not at all a problem here.The Reckoning provides a very nice mixture of themes and moods in a very well made, engaging film.

Bobske_ This review contains a few small spoilers.I love films with a medieval setting. I also love murder mysteries. You can image how much I was looking forward to seeing this film...The movie contains an amazing cast including Vincent Cassel, Paul Bettany, Brian Cox, Willem Dafoe and Ewen Bremner. With a cast like this you can expect great performances. Unfortunately, many members of this great ensemble cast have very little screen time. Brian Cox and Vincent Cassel have a few lines but perform these lines with conviction.The film has a very promising start but quickly looses a lot of it's credibility. A priest fallen from his faith, that still performs burial rituals while casting aside the whole foundation of plays in that time. I got the feeling, that Bettany's character was a priest when needed to be and a priest fallen from his faith when the situation called for it. The film tries to portray Bettany as a modern priest in difficult time (all odds are against him) but unfortunately fails miserably, IMHO. Although the performances were great, the cinematography amazing and the soundtrack mesmerizing, the story couldn't convince me. That is why I have given this film 7 stars.In short, The Reckoning is an ambitious and entertaining film, but if you want to see a good medieval murder mystery, go see Cadfael or Der Name der Rose.

mstomaso Nikolas (Paul Bettany) is a 14th (or so) century priest with a guilty conscience. Guilty of adultery, he exiles himself to the countryside and casts his lot with a group of itinerant theatrical players lead by Martin (DaFoe). Though Nikolas has no discernible acting talent, the troupe begins to grow attached to him, especially as he develops an interest in the mystery of the disappearance and death of several young boys in a small town the players have come to visit. Nikolas exhumes the corpse, attracting the attention and ire of the local magistrate, and discovers a cover-up and conspiracy which his conscience can not allow to go unexposed. Since the courts, the local law enforcement, the church and the local nobility will not listen, Nikolas must plead his case to the citizenry. The troupe takes up the task using their well honed talents.This is a very clever, well written, very well filmed, carefully planned piece of historical fiction. The medieval period is portrayed with far greater accuracy and sensitivity than the usual contemporary film affords, though its cleanliness is a bit absurd, the set is magnificent and reminiscent of Herzog's talents in creating a historic context. The language of the film is also as authentic as it could be without resorting to archaic tongues few would understand. The acting is exceptional, though a couple of Bettany's soliloquies were a little predictably presented (he seems to do a lot of this sort of thing) with DaFoe and Gina McKee providing especially touching and intense performances.The acting and strong script combine to make The Reckoning as good as a character study as it is as a dramatic mystery. It is not, however, a fast paced thriller and will undoubtedly disappoint those used to the style of mystery currently in vogue - that is guns-a-blazin' sex and violence-decorated kill-fests. If you're not in the mood for a slow-moving but intense film experience, avoid The Reckoning. If you want to be immersed in a different, but very real, world, and experience a contemporary issue through the eyes of those who live in that world, see it.

sol- An intriguing premise, plus some insight into the lives of traveling actors and the religious beliefs during the depicted time, are the aspects that keep this film going along. Many of the sequences are filmed by clichés in terms of the editing choices, close-ups, fast motion and slow motion used. The visual style is good otherwise, with high camera angles used effectively, apt sets and costumes, plus some moody landscapes - it is just all put together in a rather drone manner. The film takes a while to build up too, and it tends to be over-complicated without explaining well all that needs to be known. Still, there are interesting elements at hand here, so if it sounds appealing, the film is most likely worth a look.