Film Reviews

Beowulf

• Rating:
• Director: Robert Zemeckis.
• Starring: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson, Angelina Jolie.
• Details: US / (12A).

"What we need is a hero." Based on the anonymous 700AD poem, Beowulf tells the story of the titular hero (Winstone) who lands in Denmark in 507AD to rid the country of its scourge - the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover). Beowulf slays Grendel, but his attempt to kill its mother (Jolie) comes unstuck when her beauty muddies his clarity. Zemeckis (Back To The Future) picks up where he left off with 2004's The Polar Express and delivers a fascinating looking animated film (this reviewer was lucky enough to see it in Dundrum where the screening was in 3D but unfortunately this won't be the case everywhere). Where the story (scripted by Stardust's Neil Gaiman and Killing Zoe's Roger Avary) is thin on the ground, Zemeckis's visuals more than make up for it and the film is a treat from start to finish. The 12A rating is puzzling, however, as ultra violence (including dismemberment), nudity and a genuinely freaky-looking monster are all to the fore. Maybe the fact that Beowulf is animation swayed the IFCO, but the characters are so realistic - Gleeson looks like Gleeson, Hopkins looks like Hopkins, Jolie looks like Jolie but, oddly, Winstone looks like Sean Bean - it certainly goes some way to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Beowulf might exist as only an exercise in how far Zemeckis can take his new look, but at the end of the day it's pure entertainment. Alison Lohman, John Malkovich and Robin Wright Penn also lend their voices.

Review by Gavin Burke