Director Terry Gilliam first attempted to bring this passion project back in 1989. It wasn’t until 1998 that he secured funding for the film, and it entered into production in the year 2000, with Jean Rouchefort and Johnny Depp attached to star. However, things didn’t go as smoothly as hoped: a flood destroyed most of the filming equipment at one point, and main actor Rouchefort had to leave the project due to illness. The following years Gilliam tried to revive the project more than once, with actors such as Robert Duvall and John Hurt attached to play Cervantes’ legendary knight, but they all fell through due to financial constraints and stars leaving the project out of a loss of interest. All these unsuccesful attempts made it look like the movie would never be made, therefore it came as a huge surprise for everyone when it was announced on June 4th, 2017 that shooting had finally wrapped up for “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”. Recently I got the chance to watch Terry Gilliam’s long delayed passion project and, well, just like one critic at Cannes said earlier this year: “the movie’s greatest success is that it even exists at all.”

The film follows Toby Grisone (Adam Driver), a once-aspiring-filmmaker who now works on the advertisement branch, as he and his team come to Spain for a shoot. There he finds an old student film of his called “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”, and as it turns out the village where he shot that movie is not far away from where his production is located. He goes to the village, leaving his team in chaos trying to figure out what to do in his absence, and tries to find those who were involved with his old film. Upon meeting Javier (Jonathan Pryce), the old shoemaker who played the titular hero, Toby realizes that the man has gone insane and literally thinks of himself as Don Quixote. To make matters worse, he now thinks Toby is his faithful squire Sancho Panza and he drags him into all sorts of trouble and crazy adventures, reminiscent of the actual exploits described in Cervantes’ timeless novel. Soon, Toby starts losing his grip of what’s real and what isn’t, lost in a time-bending illusion that somehow always remains in the present.

What can be said about “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”? Well, first of all I’ll say that I actually enjoyed the film and thought it was pretty entertaining, unlike many other reviewers that make it out to be a complete disaster. That being said, the film is far from perfect, not great at all, even barely deserving of the term “good”. The film has many flaws, but let’s start with the things I liked. What really stands out for this film are the performances all around: the MVP is most definitely Jonathan Pryce as Don Quixote, he really gives it his all and goes crazy with the material he’s given, he really embodies the madness that made the original Don Quixote so special, definitely one of the best performances I’ve seen this year so far; Adam Driver is also great in the lead role, giving a sort of humanity to Toby without compromising the ability to make the audience laugh, though mostly about himself; also Stellan Skasgard adds a very menacing presence during the first two acts, perhaps I’d even say that the movie would have benefitted greatly if he was given a more important role to play in the story (more about this later), and Olga Kurylenko was also excellent in her maliciously sensous role of his wife.

Another element of the movie that stood out pretty well was the music, a score composed by the spaniard Roque Baños, consisting of quasi-religious chants, epic momentum, and a marriage between flamenco and western, the soundtrack is definitely worth checking out. The cinematography was also very good, following graciously the misadventures of our main characters while all the time showcasing the strange beauty of the spanish desert. And the costume design was pretty good too, adding to the illusion of timelines crisscrossing their way to the climax.

Now, let’s talk about the plot. Sadly, after a promising start and a few whacky situations it goes off the rails. It has an interesting premise and it made a very good first act, the whole deal with Toby tracking down his past and the story behind that student movie was pretty interesting. In the second act it goes full adventure-comedy mode, which was alright I guess, we get some pretty funny moments and some crazy recreations of the events of the novel, being a big fan of the book this was fun to watch. And then we get to the third act. Keeping with the comedy adventure spirit, we arrive at a castle where the climax is posed to go down, and we’re introduced to a villain, some russian Vodka magnate played by Jordi Molla. He’s probably the most boring villain I’ve seen in a movie lately, he’s one-dimensional as they come, he isn’t even sadistic or anything, he’s just an asshole with a lot of money, what actually doesn’t have to be a bad character at all, but if you introduce him so late into the movie he should at least do something interesting, which he doesn’. I think that Stellan Skasgards villanous executive did a pretty good job as a probable menace in the first act, so to see him reduced to some underling of another bigger jerk was just a bad way to treat the character and to frame the movie, because when you have an actor like Skasgard you should use that to your advantage.

I really find it really sad because the film had a huge potential to be great if they had been more focues and chosen a different direction. There’s an exact point in the movie in which I think it could have become a contender for the year’s best if Gilliam had chosen another path for his story. That moment was after Quixote faced the “Knight of Mirrors”, or at least this movie’s 21st century equivalent. After the duel, the character of Raúl tells Toby that his movie ruined the life for everybody in the town. During the first act the movie followed Toby and his stride through memory lane, seeing how life had evolved in the village since he left 10 years before, and in those moments the film was at its strongest. I’m fine with the second act being the way it is, a few fun adventures don’t hurt, but it is this point that I mentioned that flexes the film. I think if the movie should have focused on that line that Raúl spoke, instead of going all out on the silly action-adventure spectacle, the film could’ve turned out great. His movie ruined the lives of everyone in that village, especially that of Javier, Don Quixote himself, and that’s the direction the story should have gone. Also, some of the conflicts established in act one could come to a head, for example the effects of Toby’s negligence towards his current production, a good opportunity to see Skasgard’s villain better developed while assuming a bigger role in the story, without going the cartoonish way. Instead, we get a clichéd rescue of the helpless damsel at the hands of a terrible villain that ultimately reduces its titular character to a tragic side note. It seems as if Gilliam was more interested in recreating scenes from the novel instead of finding hiw own original story. Then again, he’s probably just happy that he finally finished the film.

As critic Mark Geizer of CineGods.com described it: “What might have been a career-encompassing statement from the 77-year-old Gilliam about his approach to life and moviemaking is…tired, compromised and rather cheap-looking.” The movie has a lot of good things going for it, the great performances, an excellent soundtrack and a pretty good cinematography and costume design, but ultimately a muddled and convoluted scrip that doesn’t know what it wants to be brings it down. It is a shame, because it could have been an excellent film if it had gone in a different direction towards the end of the second act. Alas, this is what we got, and as Terry Gilliam himself certainly knows it, the real miracle is that the film was even done in the first place.

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