GETTING MEDIEVAL IN 'RECKONING'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

'THE RECKONING'' is a medieval mystery without a mystery. It's loaded with great actors - Paul Bettany, Brian Cox, Willem Dafoe - who must contend with a director who keeps getting in their way. It's filled to the brim with talk of faith and morality, but, in the end, there's too many speeches, too much jabbering. Everything in this film is spelled out to the point of tedium.

The movie certainly has the grit and grime, plague and pestilence of the 14th century down cold. You could load a landfill with the dirt from the actors' fingernails. And no matter how determined director Paul McGuigan (``Gangster No. 1'') seems to be in telegraphing the story's every outcome, ``The Reckoning'' frequently crackles with energy and wit, thanks in large part to its animated ensemble of actors.

The film's main character is Nicholas (Bettany), a monk on the run (from villagers, God and himself) after giving in to the lusts of the flesh with a married woman. Scared and starving, Nicholas happens upon a traveling band of actors who aren't in much better shape themselves. A death in the troupe has created an opening, and Nicholas signs on. After all, he had been something of an actor himself while a man of God.

Happening upon a broken-down bridge (Fate? God's will?), the troupe changes course and finds itself in a town consumed with the murder of a local boy. Tired of putting on morality plays culled from the Bible, Martin (Dafoe) decides to buck tradition and ``show the people God is hard at work with real stories in events that touch us directly.'' Reality theater is born.

As the actors research the facts of the case, it quickly becomes apparent that justice isn't being served. Director McGuigan, working from a screenplay that Mark Mills adapted from Barry Unsworth's novel ``Morality Play,'' isn't exactly subtle in dropping hints about who the culprit is, so the movie becomes less a mystery and more a character study about Bettany's monk, a deeply conflicted man of faith looking to make peace with God.

Bettany makes the man's inner turmoil palpable, but there's not much he can do with a finale that has him fighting the talky script and McGuigan's needlessly distracting camera work and editing. Maybe McGuigan is what is known as an actors' director. He's certainly no friend to the story, not this one, at least.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

THE RECKONING - Two and one half stars

(R: sexuality, violent images)

Starring: Paul Bettany, Willem Dafoe, Brian Cox.

Director: Paul McGuigan.

Running time: 1 hr. 51 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood; Landmark's Westside Pavilion in West Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: Great acting can't overcome a mystery movie without a mystery.

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Photo:

Willem Dafoe, left, and Paul Bettany star in ``The Reckoning,'' a murder mystery set in the 14th century.