A Knight's Tale

It’s such a shame Heath Ledger died.

Even in this movie, which is ridiculous, his charisma carries the story to a level it has no business reaching.

To be clear, “A Knight’s Tale” is ridiculous. A young man named William (Ledger) lifts himself out of Medieval poverty by faking his identity with the help of hype man Geoffrey Chaucer … yes, that Chaucer. William gains glory on the jousting circuit. He meets Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), a well-to-do noble who frequently attends jousting competitions, and they fall in love because they’re the two best looking people in all the land. There’s a bit of drama courtesy of Rufus Sewell’s snarling antagonist, but in the end everything works out and there are no significant repercussions to William’s identity theft. Also, there’s lots of anachronistic music on the soundtrack because I guess that was something we all went for in 2001.

And yet … it’s a fun movie! That’s because of Ledger. His enthusiasm and talent paper over the holes and you can’t help but enjoy the experience.