By Tricia Olszewski
Based on Barry Unsworth’s 1995 historical thriller Morality Play, The Reckoning sets its CSI in 1380 England—but switching up the century doesn’t make this story any less rote. The film opens with the fall of Nicholas (Bettany), a priest who is run out of his church when he’s caught sleeping with a parishioner’s wife. One night in the woods, he happens upon a troupe of traveling actors whose leader has just died. Noting that their group is one short and not knowing what else to do with himself, Nicholas persuades them to let him join.
When the actors arrive at the next village, they witness the sentencing of Martha (Elvira Mínguez), a woman convicted of killing a young boy. After a few sparsely attended performances, the troupe’s leader, Martin (Willem Dafoe), realizes that people are tired of the biblical programming of most contemporary theater and proposes the radical idea of borrowing plot lines from reality, beginning with the boy’s murder. Martin and Nicholas interview Martha, who is mute, to flesh out details of the tragedy. After her pantomimes inform them that she was set up, Martin wants to ignore her plight. Nicholas, haunted by the guilt of his adultery, is compelled to prove her innocence.
Before he leaves the church, Nicholas sermonizes that “this life simply has to be harsh to stop earthly happiness from being loved,” and director Paul McGuigan seems to take his cue from this joyless idea. The movie’s look, courtesy of cinematographer Peter Sova, is unrelentingly dark, with many scenes taking place at night and even the daylight episodes overwhelmed by the grayness of the poverty- and plague-ravaged village. An accurate rendering of the Middle Ages, perhaps, but combined with the leaden narrative, the effect is ponderous.
The audience knows early on of developments that are played for intrigue among the characters, including what Nicholas is running away from, and—even worse—the crime’s obvious culprit. A bit of sexual tension between Nicholas and the troupe’s sole woman, Sarah (Gina McKee), briefly enlivens Mark Mills’ talky, humorless script, but the attraction gets snuffed out in the pursuit of justice.
As elder player Tobias, Brian Cox is reduced to a one-note contrarian, and the only impression Dafoe leaves as the obstinate Martin comes courtesy of his clearly visible rib cage during some preshow backbends. Bettany, who held his own against Russell Crowe in both A Beautiful Mind and, especially, Master and Commander, is here shackled by Nicholas’ priestly nonpersonality. Questions about God and faith add some unexpected complexity to his quest when he goes mano a mano with the village’s evil ruler at film’s end, but overall, The Reckoning is both lousy and predictable.