And now, after more than 25 years in the making and unmaking…
So reads the teasing opening title card ofTerry Gilliams long-awaitedThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Nothing has ever come easily when it comes theBrazildirectors overstuffed cinematic fantasias.
Credit: Diego Lopez Calvin/Screen Media Films
He almost seems to court disaster as part of his creative process.
For Gilliam, the answer has to be yes.
After all, he can now once and for all triumphantly scratchDon Quixoteoff his yellowing to-do list.
For audiences, however, the verdict is more of a mixed bag.
Its often transporting, but even more often exhausting.
Years earlier, Toby shot a black-and-white student film about Don Quixote in a nearby village.
It launched his career.
And the inspiration that juiced that film still taunts him.
The problem is, Pryces Javier actually believes that hes Cevantes famous knight errant.
Hes also convinced that Drivers Toby is his loyal sidekick, Sancho Panza.
Its a clever idea bristling with meta possibilities.
Twenty-five years of gestation will do that.
Driver is the films real saving grace.
His snippy delivery can turn throwaway lines and labored wordplay into barbed poison darts.
And he moves with the slapstick physicality of a silent-era movie star.
You cant help but root for a maverick like Gilliam and his quixotic quest of a movie.
Hes an original in an industry with too few of them.
