The Reckoning

While visiting a small fiefdom, a troupe of 14th century traveling actors abandon their standard Bible story fare in order to reenact the recent murder of a local boy when they discover that the official version of events is a cover-up for something far more disconcerting. One of them--a disgraced priest on the run played by Paul Bettany--feels compelled to investigate because a mute wild-woman healer (and thus a suspected witch) is scheduled to hang for the crime unjustly, but what he uncovers leads the actors to risk their lives to expose the truth by presenting a play based on the facts. Unfortunately, director Paul McGuigan utterly fails to address one fundamental problem with the story: namely, what makes the players think the people of this village would pay to see the still-fresh horror of a child's brutal murder fictionalized for them like some Middle-Ages Movie of the Week? As the very crux of the plot, this becomes an unfortunate, insurmountable hurdle for a movie--adapted from Barry Unsworth's superior novel Morality Play--that otherwise boasts considerable strengths. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)