There is hardly anything more frustrating for a cinephile than a film competently made by experienced and talented people which, somehow, fails to live to its obvious potential. One of such sad examples is Ladyhawke, 1985 period fantasy adventure directed by Richard Donner.
The plot is set in medieval times, in the area somewhere around Southern France or Northern Italy. In the beginning we are introduced to Philipe Gaston a.ka. “Mouse” (played by Matthew Broderick), young thief who is about to be executed, but nevertheless, with combination of ingenuity and good luck, manages to escape the dungeon in castle of Aquilla. He is first person to achieve this feat and the Bishop (played by John Wood) who owns the castle orders his guards to track and kill young man. They are about to succeed in their mission, but Gaston gets saved by Etienne of Navarre (played by Rutger Hauer), mysterious wandering knight who used to be captain of Bishop’s guard. Gaston reluctantly joins Navarre, who is always accompanied by a hawk. Navarre is never seen at night and Gaston instead meets beautiful woman, later revealed to be noblewoman Isabeau de Anjou (played by Michelle Pfeiffer). Isabeau, which is always followed by mysterious large black wolf, is never seen during daylight. Only after circumstances lead him to lonely monk Imperious (played by Leo McKern), Gaston learns the fantastic but terrible truth – Bishop, infatuated by Isabeux and jealous of Navarre, turned to satanic rituals and has put the curse on lovers, forcing them to temporarily take animal forms in a way that would make them together, but always apart. Imperious seems to have a plan for breaking the curse and Gaston reluctantly agrees to help him, even if it means returning to Bishop’s castle.
Richard Donner was one of the most successful and the most respected Hollywood film makers, known not only for “larger-than-life” films, but also for his genre versatility. This probably attracted him to Ladyhawke, film that was supposed to combine old school swashbuckling adventure with fantasy, romance and even some mild humour. The result was underwhelming with cast having least to do with it. Actors do very competent job, especially Rutger Hauer which excels in his first major role of heroic character in Hollywood, a role very different from character in similarly-themed Flesh + Blood made roughly at the same time. Other members of the cast are good even when limited by weak script, like Pfeiffer that appears relatively briefly or Broderick whose character often talks to God, making him some sort of narrator combined with comic relief. Character actors like Ken Hutchinson as Bishop’s main henchman or scenery-chewing Leo McKern are very good, while John Wood, for all of his skill, can’t make main villain into something memorable or truly intimidating. The most obvious flaw, however, is the soundtrack by Andrew Powell which represents strange and not particularly effective mix of 1980s style synthesisers and traditional orchestral pieces, which in the end sounds too anachronistic to be taken seriously in film with such epic ambitions. Donner also downplays fantasy elements and, as a result, scenes of characters’ transformation are done with cheapest and simplest optical effects. The main problem is, however, the script that takes too much to establish proper plot and depends too much on narration, in the ending making Ladyhawke much longer than it should have been. This film failed at the box office and didn’t win many critics, but it nevertheless can be recommended to the fans of the period adventure, although only if their expectations aren’t too high.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/526-ladyhawke Critic: AA
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