Terry Gilliam's "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" is one of the more incoherent films I've seen lately, but this isn't all that unusual for Gilliam. The narratives of "Tideland," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," and "Zero Theorem" have all been rather muddled to some degree. And this is a movie about Don Quixote, after all, literature's favorite Spanish madman who famously got lost in his own fantasies.
But of more interest to cinephiles is that "Don Quixote" is Terry Gilliam's notorious white whale, a movie that encountered so much misfortune on its way to the big screen, that it took him nearly thirty years to complete it, and a very good documentary was made about its production troubles way back in 2002. It would be hard to make the case that the finished product was worth all the effort, but it is an interesting film, and a significantly different one than Gilliam originally envisioned. I think this is also one of those cases where knowing about all the behind-the-scenes chaos actually improves the viewing experience.
Toby Grisoni (Adam Driver), is a feckless young director shooting a commercial in rural Spain, and comes across the old village where he made a student film about Don Quixote de la Mancha ten years ago. The actor who played Quixote, a shoemaker maned Javier (Jonathan Pryce), has since gone off the deep end and believes that he really is Quixote. He insists that Grisoni is Sancho Panza, and the two go off to have adventures together, fleeing the law and Toby's boss (Stellan Skarsgaard), fighting giants, and saving fair maidens like the lovely Angelica (Joana Ribeiro).
Shot in Spain without much of a budget, "Don Quixote" nonetheless looks fantastic. In many scenes, Gilliam fills the screen with elaborate sets and costumes, tons of artfully arranged debris, and a couple of good instances of special effects. It's wonderful to finally be able to see the giants in all their glory. In other scenes, however, it looks like the filmmakers just hastily threw together whatever was available on short notice. There are sequences that look oddly patched together, and clearly some of the pieces are missing. Much of the editing is very abrupt, especially the ending, .
I can only guess at the state of the script, but my guess is that it wasn't in the best shape. This is the only reason I can think of for the usually dependable Adam Driver delivering one of the worst performances of his career, playing a spoiled brat of a director who is eventually redeemed by his friendships with Don Quixote and Angelica. There are multiple scenes where he shouts and screams for no discernable reason, delivers awful dialogue, and is in a constant state of whiny agitation. Little attempt is made to give him things like a backstory or a clear motivation.
Jonathan Pryce makes an excellent Don Quixote, however, a self-important, tragically noble figure who exists out of time. Every time he's onscreen, he exudes so much charisma that the film seems better than it actually is. The best parts of the movie are where he insists on riding headlong into catastrophe, or mightily chastises Toby for his boorishness. I wish Gilliam had given him more of the spotlight, or made a version of this movie that was a more straightforward "Don Quixote" adaptation. As is, "Don Quixote" is worth a watch just to see Pryce's performance, but it's a bit of a pain to get there.
Earlier versions of the film contained a time-travel element, where Toby would have travelled to the real Don Quixote's age. I think that the removal of this was a wise choice, since it avoids an unnecessary level of complication. Tying Quixote to a state of madness that afflicts various characters is a perfectly good alternative, and allows for memorable visuals as reality and fantasy clash. I suspect that Gilliam planned more elaborate spectacle along these lines, but the final film only gives us fleeting glimpses of Quixote's mad visions.
In the end, the movie is a mess, but it's a mess on its own terms. I was satisfied with it, having expected much worse. Gilliam's films have been getting more and more indulgent and inscrutable over time, but this one still has those occasional moments of wild genius that I adore. And if this turns out to be Terry Gilliam's final feature, there really couldn't be a better one for him to go out with.
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