(Disclaimer: There be no actual dragons.)
Samuel Goldwyn Pictures has released a new clip from their upcoming "action-adventure" romance (though it looks like a straight-up drama with a few scenes of war), There Be Dragons, a film about revolutionaries and saints in the midst of a civil war. A dragon civil war? Nay, just a normal civil war. It's a tale of familiar themes like love, heroism, jealousy, forgiveness, and heartbreak. Not necessarily all at once nor in that order. There Be Dragons was written and directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields, The Mission) and stars Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Charlie Cox (Stardust), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace), Derek Jacobi (Gladiator), Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II), and Rodrigo Santoro (300). There Be Dragons opens in theaters on May 6th, 2011.
For the clip, our thoughts, and the official summary, hit the jump...
Unfortunately, our outlook on this one is pretty bleak, and that's not just because of the blatant lack of poor CGI dragons. The acting and writing comes across as if we're watching a high-budget soap opera. We want to hope that this clip isn't representative of the film as a whole, and our experience with past Roland Joffe films, like the excellent The Mission (thanks to Jeremy Irons), lend some credence to that. Here's hoping this was just a case of taking a clip that doesn't work out of context, because if it is representative, the melodramatic delivery of the actors here is just a little too much for us to take.
Here's the official (rather long) synopsis, which sounds better and more compelling than this clip:
There Be Dragons is an epic action-adventure romance set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. The story traces the lives of two young men, Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox) and Manolo Torres (Wes Bentley), childhood friends who are separated by the political upheaval of pre-war Spain to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. Choosing peace, Josemaria becomes a priest and struggles to spread reconciliation by founding the movement Opus Dei (work of God). Manolo chooses war and becomes a spy for the fascists. He becomes obsessed with a beautiful Hungarian revolutionary, Ildiko, who has joined the militia in pursuit of passion and purpose. But when Ildiko rejects him out of love for the courageous militia leader Oriol, Manolo's jealousy leads him down a path of betrayal. As personal and national battles rage, the characters' lives collide and their deepest struggles are illuminated through the fateful choices they make. Each will struggle to find the power of forgiveness over the forces tearing their lives and friendship apart.
In contrast, the trailer sells the film quite a bit better, though the hints at hammy acting are still present.
