THE KING (2019)

Back in the late 1930s, Orson Welles rejiggered Shakespeare’s lineup of British historical plays into something he called FIVE KINGS.  Eventually reduced, refined & filmed in 1966 to legendary effect as FALSTAFF/CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, whittled largely out of HENRY IV: Parts One & Two.  But his original mash-up proved extremely influential, not only in subtle expansions to HENRY V/’44;’89 for Laurence Olivier & Kenneth Branagh (both stars making  smash film directing debuts), but also in THE HOLLOW CROWN/’12, an all-star prestige mini for Richard Eyre.  And now we can see it used again, just minus the Shakespeare!*  The template remains, Elizabethan structure don’tcha know, and with one significant character elevated from Hi-Lo Comic Mentor to Noblest Lollard of them all!  But the actual words we hear are from David Michôd who also directs and Joel Edgerton who also plays the elevated character just mentioned: Falstaff.  (Why they didn’t go back to the fellow’s real name, Oldcastle, beyond me.)  And while this remains a whale of a tale (young Henry V matures overnight once Dad dies and puts down conspiracies before taking his small army into France exposing his ruthless heroism), this well-received NetFlix release seems to have been quickly forgotten in spite of a cast rife with hot stars like Timothée Chalamet and Robert Pattinson.  Pattinson, by far the best thing in here, is also the sole member of the cast not to get completely caught up speaking all his lines in fashionable croaky whispers meant to connote modern naturalism.  (It’s Steppenwolf meets The Method, as strained thru RADA technique.)   Fortunately, the production improves in the last act when we go outside for battles in sunlight and fields boggy from last night’s rain.  But you’ll still spend too much time wondering how lanky King Chalamet can lift those heavy broad swords in battle or why he puts up with Lily-Rose Depp’s laughably Woman-of-Today Princess Catherine.  Unhappy fact, Henry dead at 33, only two years after his marriage.*

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *The script’s version of events possibly more inaccurate than Shakespeare.  A first!