The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) – T. Gilliam

This is director Terry Gilliam’s fabled “cursed” production that was finally completed and released in 2018 to very little fanfare (after filming started in 2000).  I watched it with low expectations and (after an early anti-PC line in the script had me worried) was pleased that the film turned out to be very watchable.  Adam Driver plays a film director attempting to make a big screen version of Cervantes’ epic novel (updating his own earlier student film from 10 years prior) but who is struggling to find inspiration.  When he stumbles across the poor shoemaker (Jonathan Pryce) who had starred in his earlier film but who now believes he is actually Quixote in the flesh and that Driver is Sancho Panza, they embark on a number of adventures.  As befits Gilliam’s oeuvre, the line between fantasy and reality is often blurred, as Driver also seems to hallucinate a Quixotic milieu and viewers are also tossed and turned backwards and forwards between modern day and 17^th century Spain.  There is a plot of sorts that involves Driver trying to rescue Joana Ribeiro who plays a young woman whose life was altered (for the worse) after she played a role in Driver’s first film.  She’s under the thumb of a sadistic rich guy (Jordi Mollà) who Driver’s producers are courting to get the contract to produce some vodka ads – or something like that.  There are some jarring notes here, as Driver’s character isn’t always likeable (though Jonathan Pryce is always endearing as Quixote) and the modern characters swear way too much (unnecessary).  The film is also too long -- but from time to time, Gilliam does manage to conjure up something magical (a distant echo of The Saragossa Manuscript, 1965, perhaps); if only he had the discipline to distil the film down to just these moments.