Release Date: January 13, 2006 Studio: 20th Century Fox Director: Kevin Reynolds
Screenwriter: Dean Georgaris Starring: James Franco, Sophia Myles, Rufus Sewell, David Patrick
O'Hara, Mark Strong, Henry Cavill, Bronagh Gallagher, Dexter Fletcher Genre: Drama, Romance MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense battle sequences and some sexuality) Official Website:
TristanandIsoldemovie.com DVD:
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Plot Summary: After the fall of Rome, the
warlords of England are brutally kept in line by the forces of Irish King
Donnchadh. One of these leaders, Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite the
English tribes to form one strong nation to rule itself. His greatest knight is
Tristan (James Franco), whom Marke raised since he was orphaned in an Irish
attack that also took Marke's family. With Tristan by his side, Marke believes
he can unify his people and rid England of Irish rule. But Tristan harbors a
terrible secret...
Wounded and left for dead after battle, he is nursed back to health by Isolde
(Sophia Myles), a mysterious Irish beauty who hides him from her father, King
Donnchadh's, forces and brings him back to life. But their passionate affair is
cut short when Tristan must return to England, not knowing if he will see Isolde
again.
Still seeking to throw the English tribes back into chaos, King Donnchadh gives
away his daughter as the prize in a tournament between all the champions of
England. Tristan wins the princess' hand for Lord Marke, whose vision of a
united England may finally be realized.
Tristan is horrified to see that the woman he has won for his Lord, the woman
whom Marke will marry, is his Irish savior Isolde. Worse, Marke is a good and
worthy future king, whose belief in Tristan has made the young knight who he is.
First separated by countries at war, and now by loyalty to King and country,
Tristan and Isolde must suppress their emotions for the sake of peace and the
future of England. But the more they deny their passion, the more fiercely it
burns. Despite their efforts to stay apart, Tristan and Isolde are driven
inexorably together, risking everything for one last moment in each other's
arms.
The medieval love affair between Tristan and Isolde is the stuff of Celtic
legend. The movie version, starring James Franco (Spiderman) and Sophia
Myles as the doomed lovers, is about two incompatible abstractions: love and
war. By a long shot, Tristan and Isolde believes in the power of
everlasting love over violence and dominance. True, even though the quality of
the movie lets the material down.
About 600 AD, during the dark ages, Ireland rules England which has split into
tribes after the Romans departed. According to some, if England unites they
could form a powerful frontline militia against the Irish. Tristan, second to
King Mark (Rufus Sewell), is poisoned during a battle against the Irish and he
is despatched by boat into the ocean, believed dead. Washed ashore, the daughter
of the deceased Queen of Ireland, Isolde, finds him. “I’ve found a man,”
exclaims the wanton princess who is bethroved to her father’s choice for a
husband, an outsized, ugly warrior. Tristan is cold and she takes him to her
home, warming him with her naked body. “It’s been fifteen years since I’ve been
naked with a man,” cries Isolde’s maid. Isolde mends him to life.
Isolde’s yearning for Tristan has dramatic potential – the language of love has
deep wells, and there are touches of the sensual and soulish here – but she is
like a damsel in distress. Obsessed, she reminds of a desperate unfortunate
teenager eloping from her strict father with the best looking guy on campus,
than an authentic, convincing and mature heroine. Her ranting becomes curiously
interesting later on, even emotionally involving, when the plot thickens. But
Isolde’s love object Tristan is stoic and unresponsive emotionally so makes her
love even harder to understand. Where are these wells and depths of love that we
should expect from a famous love story? Dialogue suffices here although
unsatisfactory. Tristan and Isolde gets the sense of the Dark Age’s
right, a bleak bottomless pit of a world, but fails to convince and resonate in
delivering a medieval love story and international crisis (which is what
Braveheart did well). This is a lifeless and monotonous affair.
We would love to know what you think, sound off on the
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Release Date: January 13, 2006
- Almost phony baloney