Bawdy medieval adventure

Bawdy medieval adventure

07 October 2006
BEOWULF & GRENDEL (R16) Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson ***
Reviewed by Margaret Agnew
Stuff.co.nz (THE PRESS)

Hwaet! We have reached Daneland and the epic poem of Beowulf & Grendel has been condensed to a mere 103min.

In around 500AD, on the outskirts of Daneland, a giant red-bearded man runs with his (also bearded) child in a vain attempt to escape a horde of Norse horsemen with murderous intent.

Led by Danish King Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgard), the men show no mercy to the innocent troll. Orphaned, the distraught boy-troll takes his father's head home with him, and so a great hate is born that will plague the tribe of Hrothgar in years to come.

Having heard of their plight, and out of loyalty to an old friend, the great hero Beowulf (Gerard Butler) sets out from Geatland (now part of Sweden) to rid the village of the murderous monster.

When he and his men arrive, however, things are not as simple as slaying a beast. Northern Europe is changing around him, with the reign of many gods giving way to mono- theistic Christianity. Likewise, Beowulf's moral code is changing as the outcast witch Selma (Sarah Polley) alters his perceptions about his fiendish foe. She tells him the troll has a name, Grendel (Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson) and is not nearly as inhumane as most men. Further revelation reveals that what Beowulf thought was a righteous quest is really someone else's blood feud.

Director Sturla Gunnarsson (Rare Birds) and writer Andrew Berzins have chosen to focus on the first half of the tale in which Beowulf battles with Grendel and his kin.

With modern English mixed in with ye olde stuff and bawdy humour, it's an amusing retelling of the tale, which often treads that fine line between serious historic drama and high camp comedy.

There's more than a touch of Monty Python here, only with better costumes and set in the stunning extreme landscape of Iceland.

The leads, Stellan Skarsgard and Gerard Butler, handle themselves well in a script that swings rapidly from extreme violence to eerie mythology to sheep-shagging jokes. Skarsgard adds a Lear-ish quality to his increasingly grief-maddened king, while handsome Butler takes on the conflicted hero role well.

Handicapped by some pretty shoddy special effects make-up and costuming, Sigurdsson makes his fearsome troll a figure of energy and empathy.

Unfortunately, as the soothsaying witch, Polley's American accent is strangely jarring amid the Scots and Scandinavian accents.

A hit for all those medieval re-enactment buffs out there, Beowulf & Grendel is a boy's own bawdy adventure, full of swords, sex, violence, swearing and the super-natural. For a tale that is more than a millennium old, Beowulf & Grendel romps along remarkably well.



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