The Reckoning is a 2003 murder-mystery film set during the medieval period. The film is directed by Paul McGuigan and is written by Mark Mills from Barry Unsworth's 1995 novel, Morality Play. It was released in 2003.
The film is rich with intrigue and atmosphere and boasts a fine supporting cast. The play also alludes to the evolution of the theatre arts from (in the period) what was strictly Biblical morality plays to dramas based on real or non-Biblical fictional subjects.
Plot
In 1380 England, a priest (Bettany) called Nicholas leaves his village after being caught in flagrante delicto with a married woman. After hiding in woods, he is found by a travelling acting troupe that at first think he is a robber. Reluctantly, they allow him to join their group to replace one of their members who has just died.
They are forced to travel to new lands after a collapsed bridge stops them taking their normal route. Eventually, the troupe reach a strange town that has a castle (that is under reconstruction). On arrival, the actors find all the townsfolk in the market square to hear a woman sentenced to death for killing a boy. Her conviction is based on the testimony of a Benedictine Monk (Ewen Bremner). Next day, the troupe perform a biblical passion play but only a few people come to watch and they make very little money.
The group's leader, Martin (Willem Dafoe), then takes the decision to perform a morality play based on the events surrounding the child murder. He and Nicholas visit the condemned woman in the dungeons. However despite being mute, the men come away with the strong belief she is innocent of the crime.
Nevertheless, the players perform their play portraying the woman as a seductress who lured the boy to his death. However, this interpretation infuriates the child's bereaved parents who heckle the stage adding more to the story. Watching from a castle window is the Norman Lord de Guise (Vincent Cassel). The sheriff and his men arrive and clear the square by force.
The acting troupe are told to leave town by first light. However, Nicholas's strong conviction urges the others join him and investigate further the circumstances of the murder but they refuse. That night, the former priest digs up the boy's body only to discover it has been violated before death. While in the graveyard, he meets two men, the King's Justices, who are carrying out their own investigations. Nicholas is then forced to leave by the town's sheriff.
However, outside town, Nicholas refuses to continue with the troupe and returns disguised as a monk. Shortly afterwards, Martin relinquishes his role as the group's leader and follows him.
Back in the town, Nicholas enters the church in disguise. He finds the monk that testified at the trial and tells him that he knows the woman is innocent as he knows of the boy injuries and this was witnessed by the King's Justices. But the monk reveals he had nothing to do with the death intimating he is protecting someone else.
Nicholas leaves and is found by Martin. The two of them then learn from the King's Justice that the monk has been found dead (and with it, any chance to get evidence concerning his lord and master, de Guise who they know is planning a revolt to seize the English throne). It is then revealed that the authorities also knew that wherever de Guise goes, boys disappear.
Nicholas then obtains more evidence to prove that the woman is not the real killer (the body was found with rigor mortis which meant the killing was more recent). At the execution, the acting troupe, who have also all returned, seize the scaffold and perform the play again with the new information inciting the crowd against de Guise. Guards are called out of the castle forcing the actors to flee to the church. But unbeknownst to them is that de Guise is already there performing an act of penitence.
Nicholas confronts the Lord with the evidence who, without much coercion, admits everything knowing that he is untouchable under the feudal system. But when Nicholas tells him that the boy he raped and murdered had the plague, he stabs the former priest. As Nicholas stumbles outside the church, de Guise walks back towards his castle through the throng of townsfolk. But when he reaches the gate, the portcullis lowers sealing his fate to be lynched by the mob.
The film concludes with the acting troupe holding Nicholas in his final death throes. Before leaving, Martin acknowledges that he will live on in the play that they will now perform when they reach Durham.
Cast
Production notes
The film was shot on location in a variety of locations including Almería and Rodalquilar in Andalucía, Spain. Castle interiors were completed at Hedingham Castle, in Essex, England. With additional filming for the travelling sequences shot in mid Wales.
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