Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing content and thematic elements
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Foy, Robbie Sheehan
Director: Dominic Sena
"Season of the Witch" plays like a movie where any capacity for viewer empathy has been left on the cutting room floor. It approaches its material they same way, I'd imagine, that a video game designer might...
We have cookie-cutter lead characters, some semblance of a backstory, a slew of dangers our heroes must face, and a showdown between Good and Evil that threatens the world as we know it. What we don't have is a reason to care about any of it.
Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman are Behmen and Felson, two 14th century Crusaders who throw themselves into His service with comic fervor. ("You take the 300 on the left, I'll take the 300 on the right.") That is, until they feel betrayed following orders which resulted in the massacre of women and children. They abandon their post, are branded as deserters, and flee to a land overrun by the black plague. Their identities are uncovered and they are apprehended.
A deal is proposed. In order to regain their freedom, they must escort a young girl believed to be a witch to a remote abbey where monks will perform some kind of ritual in an effort to put an end to the plague. Behmen will comply on one condition... that the girl (Claire Foy) will receive a fair trial upon arrival. (Seems strange that he would have reason to believe his captors given the aforementioned betrayal. Of course, if he refused then there wouldn't be a movie.) So, accompanied by a priest convinced of the girl's guilt, a knight in mourning over his lost daughter, and a naive yet headstrong youth determined to earn his knighthood, the men embark on the dangerous journey.
It's not so much a hateful movie as a thoroughly disposable one. There's nothing to care about here. I know there is a distinct demographic of cinema viewers who love sword-and-sorcery movies but I am not of that ilk. Perhaps I've seen one too many cinematic Armageddons in my day, but it takes a lot to engage my interest in another ultimate battle between Good and Evil. This effort didn't quite rise to that level. Maybe if the movie took on a more humorous slant, it might have fared better. Indeed, at times the actors seem to recite their dialogue with a kind of cognizance of absurdity... as though they thought they might be participating in a Monty Python flick, but weren't quite sure.
The director is Dominic Sena, whose career is interesting in its mediocrity. Consider this... his feature-length directoral debut (following several Janet Jackson music videos) was the riveting low-budget indie thriller "Kalifornia" with Brad Pitt giving one of his best performances as serial killer Early Grayce. It was an impressive debut that called attention to the talents of its director. He followed that up years later with a subpar remake of Toby Halicki's "Gone in Sixty Seconds." On the heels of that one came the mediocre "Swordfish", the less-than-mediocre "Whiteout" and now this one. Like Michael Bay, he's a director who seems to be evolving in the wrong direction. "Kalifornia" was a movie that really had something significant to say regarding the violent energies running rampant in our society, but his efforts since then feel phoned in, as though anything beyond the artistic scope of a music video requires too much thought. Sena was apparently inspired to do this movie by Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" and has chosen to honor that film by making one that imbues the viewer with a passionate desire to watch Bergman's far superior "Seal".
One might wonder what prompted Cage to take on this role, but this isn't that surprising. His IMDb filmography page is littered with throwaway movies like this. He works so often that I suspect he doesn't always have the patience to wait for the best screenplays to come along, choosing instead to participate in whatever crosses his queue. Ron Perlman can chew scenery with the best of 'em, and seems a perfect fit for this kind of story. But since we've seen him in this mode before, I do find myself wondering why he'd bother. He already has a plum role of the FX television series "Sons of Anarchy". Maybe a vacation during that show's hiatus would have been a better move.
In a movie where my interest is lacking, my eyes scan the screen for anything of interest to latch onto. In this case, they fell on British actress Claire Foy. She possess a tomboyish appeal, similar to Kristen Stewart before "Twilight" got an unfortunate hold of her. Playing a character credited only as "The Girl", she chooses to play down the potential histrionics associated with a role like this, opting instead for a subtlety that arouses curiosity instead of instilling fear. She has taken what could have been a shrill performance and makes it a watchable one.
As uninteresting as this movie is, no careers will be destroyed here. (Not even Sena's.) The studio's decision to release the film in early January was a true act of mercy to all those involved in its inception. The quicker this film is forgotten, the better it will be for all the participants. Luckily, here is a movie that seems engineered for exactly that.
* 1/2 out of * * * * stars
