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Beowulf & Grendel

2005, Movie, R, 104 mins

Beowulf & Grendel: Review

BEOWULF & GRENDEL
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Who could have foreseen that one of the hottest current properties in theater, opera and movies would turn out to be an ancient poem in Old English? Long a staple on English 101 syllabi, Beowulf, composed sometime between the seventh and 10th centuries by an unknown Anglo-Saxon poet, underwent an exciting extreme makeover in 2000 at the hands of poet Seamus Heaney; his brilliant translation not only put it on the New York Times best-seller list, but restored this hugely entertaining adventure about a warrior's epic battles against a rampaging monster to its original, grisly glory. It also revealed the stuff of movie blockbusters. First out of the gate: Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson's adaptation, and, despite some pretty awful special-effects makeup, it's a pretty good — and good-looking — version of the tale. Hearing of the nightly slaughters that plague the proud new mead hall of Danish King Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgard), the legendary Geat hero Beowulf (Gerald Butler) assembles a team of warriors and sets sail for Daneland, where they're welcomed with open arms by the king and his queen (Steinunn Olina Porsteinsdottir). The massacres, Beowulf is told, are the work of savage, giant troll Grendel (Ingvar Eggert Sigurosson), but Hrothgar neglects to mention why he's on the rampage: When Grendel was just knee-high to a dragon, Grendel saw his beloved father mercilessly hunted down and killed by the Hrothgar's men. Retiring to his cave with his father's head for company, Grendel grew into a grunting, growling beast consumed by grief and unquenchable thirst for revenge. These details of Grendel's history are offered by comely witch Selma (Sarah Polley), who dwells on the outskirts of Hrothgar's territories, close to Grendel and the secret they both share. Part of the fun — and terror — of the Beowulf poet's conception of Grendel is that you're never sure what he's supposed to look like; he seems to be both man and giant lizard, equally at home on dry land and on the bottom of a murky bog. One must on the one hand feel grateful for Gunnarsson's decision to forego a CGI rendering of English Lit's first and foremost monster, and using a recognizably human actor to portray Grendel further emphasizes that Grendel is really no more a monster than the drunken Hrothgar whose conversion to Christianity probably won't save his immortal soul. But Grendel's costuming and makeup are so distractingly bad — he's sort of looks like an overgrown Chaka from Land of the Lost, with a scraggly blond beard and plastic Popeye forearms — he's hardly threatening. We're more likely to snicker at this marauding monster than scream. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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