Season of the Witch
Now, I get that this is intended to be a “period film,” but the very least the filmmakers could have done would have been to play the Rolling Stones song that gave this silly little movie its title once, even if it was just over the credits. Is that really so much to ask?
I say “silly” in the nicest possible way. Though it culls from legend and history for its story of two Crusade knights, deserters who cannot condone the hypocrisy of the leaders of that Holy War, whom are recruited by the Church to lead a woman accused of witchcraft to a “trial,” the script by Bragi Schut is more inspired by modern action movie conventions (seriously, just try not to think of this as a Medieval buddy movie as the film goes along) than the great historical epics. And director Dominic Sena (who has appeared to go into hackdom after his acclaimed debut “Kalifornia”) doesn’t do the story any favors by laying on every cliche of sword-and-sandal epics past on top of supernatural scariness that wouldn’t make my dog frightened (trust me, my dog’s a wuss when it comes to scary noises).
On the whole, though, the movie remains watchable. Nicolas Cage and Ron Pearlman do their level best to keep us entertained as Behmen and Felson, the Crusaders who are on this mission. As the titled “witch,” Claire Foy is all evil looks mixed with beguiling innocence. And for all of the film’s lack of dramatic weight and tension, the filmmakers did get the atmosphere right on the nose. Still, why go through all the trouble to find out if she’s a witch? All you have to do is see if she weighs as much as a duck.
