7 out of 10
 

"Knight's Tale" pleasantly surprised me Some, for a little while. The films "Writer/Director" Brian Helgeland researched the historical background tolerably well: there actually was a medieval knight named: Ulrich von Leichtenstein who jousted semi-professionally.

The actors played their characters skillfully and entertainingly enough ( especially so for the minor characters, eg. Adhemar's squire and a rotund French Bishop ). The cinematography was nothing special ( although I swear that some ideas were lifted from "Gladiator" , eg. bird's eye view of London ).

The plot was simple and has been used since Chaucer's time: to achieve a goal, hero, William Thatcher/Ulrich (player with boyish innocence by: Heath Ledgar), with the help of his friends, the Spock/McCoy duo of Roland/Wat ( Mark Addy and Alan Tudyle ), the not - so - historical, but flamboyant Chaucer (Paul Bettany), and the swoosh - branding smith Kate ( Laura Fraser ) , must disguise his identity. He is subsequently punished by his nemesis, the evil Adhemir ( Rufus Sewell ). Never the less, the hero wins the day ( not to mention the noble lady Jocelyn ( Shannyn Sossamon ) by luck and pluck, ignoring real social inequalities in the face of mibnor similarities such as a love of jousting.

On the negative side, the mixture of medieval and modern music, attitudes and customs was a bit jarring, although I found it interesting at first.