A good movie

When I heard that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were finally working together (acting and writing) on a new project more than 20 years after ‘Dogma’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’, I got really intrigued and the fact that the damned thing would be directed by Ridley Scott pretty much turned this movie into a must-see for me. Eventually, it turned out to be a flop but I think it’s a shame, not because it was really a masterpiece but because it was at least something else than another Fast & Furious, Star Wars, Marvel instalment or any other big blockbuster franchise. Eventually, you might wonder if they will continue making such movies if they keep losing money each time around. Anyway, at least, you can trust Good Old Ridley Scott to deliver a lavish and gritty Medieval epic as the whole thing was visually really neat and convincing. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the ‘Rashomon’ approach. Still, I thought there was a huge plot hole in their story though. Indeed, even though they gave us basically 3 times the same story, in none of these versions, did they give us an explanation on how Jacques Le Gris managed to pay his ‘visit’ to Marguerite de Carrouges exactly at the right moment when everybody had left her castle. Seriously, I thought there was a huge gap here. I think it was also pretty obvious that Ben Affleck was originally supposed to play Le Gris so he could face his BFF which would have been pretty awesome but, unfortunately, because of some schedule conflict, he had to settle down for a smaller part. Still, he definitely had some fun playing Pierre d'Alençon (by the way, I did actually live in Alençon for a couple of years) and the whole cast was actually really good here (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer). Coming back to the ‘Rashomon’ structure, it was neat that basically pretty much all the male characters turned out to be some douchebags after all but I’m not sure if it was really so interesting to display the woman involved in this conflict as some kind of immaculate innocent victim. Basically, it did turn the whole thing into some kind of medieval feminist #metoo pamphlet. On the other hand, it was a good reminder that women were pretty much treated like garbage back in those days. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.