'Tristan & Isolde' makes both love and war look good
By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post
Perhaps figuring that it was too soon for another film version of Romeo and Juliet, director Kevin Reynolds has come up with another pair of star-crossed, tragic lovers in his Dark Ages epic, Tristan & Isolde. Yes, it's those two impetuous kids from the Wagner opera, in a much-adapted version of their story, surely chosen for the screen for its grand passions and lots of bloody warfare.
Twentieth Century Fox
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Taking place soon after the fall of the Roman Empire, the backdrop for this love story is the struggle for dominance between the Irish and the English, the latter fractured into feuding tribes whose failure to unite only helps the Irish forces. The film eventually gets to the title young lovers, but first, it hits us over the head with some bloody battle footage to gain our attention.
Among the early casualties is English warrior Tristan (James Franco), believed dead and set adrift on a boat set afire with flaming arrows. Not only does the vessel not burn, but Tristan's wounds are not fatal. He conveniently floats to Ireland, where he is found and nursed to health by Isolde (Sophia Myles), the daughter of the Irish king. After she strips naked to warm him up, the two of them fall feverishly in love.
Still, Tristan feels duty-bound to return to England and help Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) rally the tribes. And because Marke apparently doesn't get out much, Tristan returns to Ireland for a fight-to-the-death tournament in order to win Marke a bride. The problem, of course, is that the bride turns out to be Isolde.
So now the saga starts to resemble the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot triangle, with Tristan and Isolde stealing away for some horizontal clinches when Marke is not looking. Everyone else in the land seems to know about their treasonous affair, and it seems a matter of time before Marke catches on. Adding to the crisis, the Irish king spies his daughter with Tristan and gets so incensed that he calls off the truce and goes to war with England again.
Tristan & Isolde's plot is probably no less improbable than Romeo and Juliet's, but it is surely helped when placed in the emotionally stylized framework of opera. Even so, it is easy to see why this tale has endured for centuries, and it is entirely possible that it could catch on with the date-night crowd. (If romance is not your thing, relax, a battle will be coming along in a few minutes.)
Franco continues to suggest a smoldering James Dean type, even in the Dark Ages, believably projecting both expert swordsman and romantic leading man. Myles, who may remind you of a younger Kate Winslet, comes across as a fragile little bird, but convinces as someone over whom wars get fought. Sewell's Marke is an aptly royal presence, whispering for most of the movie until he erupts with a chilling bellow.
Director Reynolds knows his way around period drama (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Count of Monte Cristo), and, thanks to production designer Mark Geraghty and cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, the stark look of the film lends a valuable air of authenticity.
Whether the legend of Tristan & Isolde has any factual basis, the movie makes love and war look good.
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