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In a nutshell, Your Highness is a contemporary medieval swords-and-sorcery parody. And by "contemporary", I mean that it accommodates a lot of profanity, modern language, sex jokes and stoner humour. In a sense, it feels as if the film was conceived by a bunch of dudes who watched Monty Python & the Holy Grail while smoking weed one evening and decided to make a similar movie. (Actually, it wouldn't be surprising if that's how Your Highness in fact began life.) Considering the names attached to the project - it was directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) and it stars James Franco, Danny McBride, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel, just to name a few - one would likely expect brilliance. Alas, while it's at times amusing, Your Highness is not as funny or as good as one might have hoped.
Constantly overshadowed by his brother, Prince Thadeous (McBride) is a lazy slob who spends his time smoking, slobbing around and procrastinating with manservant Courtney (Hardiker). His brother Prince Fabious (Franco), on the other hand, is handsome and heroic. Upon returning from his latest valiant quest, Fabious intends to wed the beautiful, virginal Belladonna (Deschanel). However, powerful warlock Leezar (Theroux) invades the ceremony on wedding day, stealing away Belladonna with plans to fulfil a wicked prophesy by impregnating her. Fabious sets off to save his bride-to-be, and drags along his reluctant brother Thadeous in the hope that the quest will facilitate a closer bond between them. During their journey, Thadeous and Fabious team up with tough, beautiful warrior Isabel who also wants Leezar dead.
It's an age-old story of myth and legend: a king has two sons, one of whom is a heroic warrior while the other is a disappointment. Your Highness uses this familiar premise, constructing a linear medieval story that could have been played seriously...but was instead inhabited by foul-mouthed, Judd Apatow-style characters. Taking into account those involved in the film's creation, it's no surprise that profanity, crude sex humour and stoner gags constitute the film's comedic backbone, but it's disappointing that the gags stem from pretty much only that instead of anything truly witty. Apparently no script was used during the filming process; instead, script notes were consulted and the dialogue was improvised. This fact is constantly obvious. While there are a few good laughs here and there, the dialogue for the most part sounds like it was lifted from a piece of high school improvisation. With the production serving up more throwaway instant gratification laughs than large, memorable comic payoffs, Your Highness is too disposable and too low on worthwhile laughs.
On a more positive note, director David Gordon Green is a talented filmmaker. Your Highness is a skilfully-assembled little comedy, with vivid sets, lush cinematography and above-average CGI creating an impressive medieval fantasy universe. Green showed that he could handle action with Pineapple Express, and here the director has further proved his aptitude. The results easily trump films like Season of the Witch in terms of scope, scale and even atmosphere. No matter which way you swing it, the production values are impeccable, and it's therefore a shame that they were squandered to make such an underwhelming picture. With a stronger script and more focus, Your Highness could have been a terrific cult comedy. Heck, for all we know, maybe the unused script was stronger and more focused. Or maybe there was never a script in the first place... Whatever.
Danny McBride can be a strong comic performer, but here he seems entirely uninvested in the material. All of his laughs lines seem self-aware, giving the impression that McBride was convinced that he is the king of hilarity. Even if he does score a few laughs here and there, McBride's performance lacks wit and characterisation. James Franco fares better, though, in a performance that's amusingly hammy. Franco was born for comedies, so it's a bit of a shame that he wasn't given better material to work with here. And then there's superhot Natalie Portman, who easily puts her co-stars to shame. Portman gets laughs because her performance is completely straight, and she doesn't seem to be in on the joke. Also in the cast is the adorable Zooey Deschanel, whose appearance reminds us why all members of the male movie-going public have a monster crush on her. The role asked for Deschanel to play a naïve beauty, and she managed to sell the part well enough without being a standout.
I wanted to like Your Highness more than I did. It comes alive in isolated places, but it's too hit-and-miss, and as a whole it underwhelms with its repetitive nature and hazy comic focus.
5.1/10
