The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film is over 20 years in the making – such a long period that there’s a classic documentary about an earlier attempt at making the film, “Lost in La Mancha”. And now that it’s arrived … it’s, okay? I guess? I must admit my patience for Late Gilliam has slipped a bit – his most recent film, “Zero Theorem”, lacked urgency or much propulsion, and this suffers a bit in the same way. As the leads, Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce each have moments to shine, but there’s a lot of wandering around the Spanish Countryside without very much development or interest. I can kinda get what he’s going for, in playing with his familiar themes about the desirability of fantasy versus reality, and the mixed price both have on people, and there’s some sparks of the old Gilliam in the later run of the film, but for a lot of the time this does feel more like ticking the box called “I showed them I could make it” rather than a film that feels urgent and passionate. Sometimes you can wait so long to make your dream project that when you finally make it, years of resentment over not having been able to make it sours the eventual product. And that’s probably this one. The finale has a bit more spark to it, but I can’t honestly say this is more than a middling exercise.