Season of the Witch:

Supernatural boredom

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

Nicholas Cage fans have waited years to see the star’s performance in the much talked about ‘Season of the Witch’ but they were sadly disappointed because neither the movie not the actor’s performance were up to expectations.

Directed by Dominic Sena this supernatural thriller is set in the 14th century. Behmen and Felson, two holy warriors desert their army after seeing the destructive nature of a war fought in name of the God. On their return they stumble upon a plague infested land and are ironically called back to serve the church. This time they have to save the town from the curse of a strange girl who is accused of being a witch. Behmen and Felson’s task is to transport the witch to a far off monastery which houses a book that will destroy her and lift the curse.

At times the tale seems ineffective and ridiculously amusing. The flimsy notion of God, the church and religion being able to surpass evil is unconvincing.

The fact that some holy water and lines chanted out of the age old scriptures is all that is needed to vanquish the demon seems absurd. With the closing scenes of the film, the plot falls apart. It does not hail the group as heroes but is more in the lines of focusing on a pack of beings who have made a mountain out of a mole hole in guiding the demon to its intended target.

The colour contrast ranging from oranges and yellows to gloomy grays are painful for the eyes. It does not generate the intended excitement and terror.

One way of describing the action is ‘unexciting’. The raising of the dead, the flee from the wolves, the search for the runaway witch which ends with a tragic death of the first member of the clan and the rickety bridge crossing sequence do not bring on the chills and thrills.

Cage’s Behman is too guilt-ridden over the accidental murder of an innocent woman to shine as the hero of the tale. He desperately struggles to give life to a stale plot and to uncover the heroic streak in an aging warrior.

The hurdles that the group has to overcome too seem stereotyped. From a crumbling rope bridge, a pack of wolves to finding that themselves at a loss because things were not that they hoped them to be when they have reached their final destination do not offer any unique experiences to moviegoers. The movie increasingly harps on the fact that the girl actually does possess supernatural powers but script writer does not seem to have been able to make up his mind in choosing between a realistic or mystic ending for the story and had finally settled for a bit of both.

An interesting point of the film is probably in its landscape sans the colour debacles inserted by the director. Shot largely in Croatia, the dramatic and picturesque ruins are the only source which bring on the eerie nature intended for ‘Season of the Witch’.

Claire Foy handles the character of the mysterious witch well. Stephen Campbell Moore is convincing as a true-believer priest with piercing eyes. Though Stephan Graham’s conman is inserted into the story to provide comic relief, he fails miserably in the task. Robert Sheehan is tolerable as an eager youngster aspiring for knighthood.

Out of the lot it is Ron Perlman who seems to have done the most justice to his act. Not only does he overshadow Behman but he is the one who brings on the interest and amusement to a flagging production.