Fans of this series are apt to be mighty surprised — happily, one hopes — by this third entry’s unexpected shift in tone and style.
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| En route to Russia in a private train, Orlando (Ralph Fiennes, far left) shares what he knows about Grigori Rasputin, while, from left, Shola (Djimon Hounsou), Conrad (Harris Dickinson) and Polly (Gemma Arterton) listen attentively. |
The tone is more akin to a Golden Age classic such as 1939’s Gunga Din … albeit with dollops of 21st century hyper-violence.
Key events are rigorously accurate: from the triggering assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which set the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) against the Triple Entente (France, Russia and Britain); to the ghastly horrors of trench warfare that claimed the lives of an estimated 9 million soldiers.
Other films have depicted the latter more authentically — director Sam Mendes’ 1917 immediately comes to mind — but Vaughn, Gajdusek and production designer Darren Gilford convincingly establish a similarly grim tableau. One sequence, achieved with some clever CGI, is particularly effective: a bit of time-lapse legerdemain that reveals the impact of two years’ of war, as a pastoral Western European landscape transforms into a barren wasteland laden with mutilated corpses.
But this comes a bit later. The conceit of Vaughn and Gajdusek’s script is that this nation-shattering abattoir was orchestrated clandestinely, behind the scenes, by a nefarious cabal whose many members include Russia’s mad monk, Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans). Their leader, known only as The Shepherd — he remains unseen, as with the early 1960s machinations of James Bond’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld — is motivated by an enraged hatred of England, for its centuries-old repression of Scotland.
Meanwhile…
Following a brief 1902 prologue set during South Africa’s Boer War, during which we meet Orlando, the Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), and his young son Conrad (Alexander Shaw), the story flashes forward a dozen years. Fiennes excels at this sort of refined, crisply authoritative figure; Orlando is unapologetically aristocratic but also mindful of his station, and the need to behave honorably for the common good.
As a result of events during that prologue, he’s also a devoted pacifist: a philosophy that increasingly puts him at odds with the impetuous Conrad (now played by Harris Dickinson), who — like so many young men of his era — wishes to prove his bravery in “glorious battle.”
Orlando is assisted by Shola (Djimon Hounsou), an impressively skilled bodyguard and right-hand man; and Polly (Gemma Arterton), a seemingly impertinent housekeeper granted an eyebrow-lifting freedom to speak her own mind.
Pacifist beliefs aside, Orlando is resolutely devoted to king and country, which prompts a crucial visit from boyhood friend and war veteran Horatio Herbert Kitchener (Charles Dance). He has become aware of a potential plot to assassinate the visiting Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which likely would fracture the uneasy alliance between King George V and his two first cousins: Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas of Russia. (The connective threads of royal rule were fascinating, during this point in time.)
In a droll bit of stunt casting, all three monarchs are played by Tom Hollander.
George V is the calm, rational one; Tsar Nicholas and his wife are hopelessly under the sway of Rasputin; and the dangerously reckless Kaiser Wilhelm is easily influenced by manipulative confidant Erik Jan Hanussen (played with oily smarm by Daniel Brühl).
Like Rasputin, Hanussen is a member of the evil cabal … as is exotic dancer-turned-spy Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner) and Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman), tasked with assassinating Ferdinand.
(Rasputin, Mata Hari, Princip and Hanussen are actual historical figures, but — for the most part — their activities here are pure fantasy. Most notably, Hanussen had nothing to do with World War I; he was more notoriously active as an adviser to Adolf Hitler and the Weimar Republic.)
Fight coordinators Guillermo Grispo and Max White stage some wildly audacious sequences, starting with a trip to Russia that climaxes with a Cossack dance-styled skirmish against Rasputin; this melee finds Orlando, Shola and Conrad clearly out-matched by the mad monk.
Numerous sword battles throughout the film begin in a manner that clearly evokes Errol Flynn’s old-school duels … until they turn impressively angry.
Speaking of Rasputin, Ifans easily steals the show; he’s gleefully profane, nasty, distastefully hedonistic and unapologetically vulgar. He’s both comical and flat-out scary: absolutely the stuff of nightmares … and, in a nod to historic legend, apparently unkillable.
Hounsou’s Shola is quietly regal and dignified … until pressed into action, at which point he becomes gracefully athletic and lethal. It’s important to note that Orlando, Conrad and Polly respect him as an equal, and he responds in kind.
Arterton’s Polly is crisp and mildly insubordinate; she’s the only one, her eyebrows invariably arched, who can challenge Orlando. And, acknowledging her perception and wisdom, he usually heeds her counsel.
On top of which, Polly is a crack shot with various firearms.
Dickinson is the epitome of rash impatience; Conrad definitely is apt to rush in where angels fear to tread, much to the dismay of his father. Dickinson’s eyes brighten, and he becomes dreamily romantic while envisioning the supposed splendor of war: the ultimate “great game.”
Dance is appropriately stiff-upper-lip as the battle-hardened Kitchener. Matthew Goode pops up occasionally as Kitchener’s devoted aide-de-camp: the sort of crisply observant soldier who ensures that all I’s are dotted and T’s crossed.
Everything builds to a wildly exciting (and highly improbable) climax atop a foreboding, snow-covered mountaintop compound laden with exotic Cashmere goats … one of whom plays a crucial and deliciously satisfying role.
On the other hand, viewers are apt to be less satisfied — shocked, even — by a second-act jolt Vaughn and Gajdusek throw into their otherwise larkish saga. (Heedless of the other patrons in last week’s preview audience, Constant Companion erupted with a shriek of “What? What? WHAT?”)
Even so, this rip-snortin’ prequel delivers the goods in a manner that many likely will find more satisfying than its two predecessors.
Jolly good show!
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