Movie Review: Your Highness

Your Highness (2011) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by Danny McBride, Ben Best 

Starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Damian Lewis

Release Date April 8th, 2011

Published April 8th, 2011

In "Your Highness" Danny McBride stars as Thaddeus, the loathsome younger brother of Fabious (James Franco), a heroic Knight and heir to the throne of Mourn. Thaddeus spends his days getting high and bedding chambermaids and is content to continue this lifestyle until Fabious returns from his latest quest with a new bride to be, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel).

Dragons, Knights and Minotaur's oh my

Thaddeus is supposed to be his brother's best man at the wedding but he fails to show up, choosing to get high instead. While Thaddeus is M.I.A the wedding is attacked by the evil sorcerer Leezar (Justin Theroux) who takes Belladonna hostage with the intent of impregnating her as part an ancient ritual.

Now, Thaddeus will be forced by his father the King (Charles Dance) to join Fabious and his Knights on a quest to retrieve Belladonna or lose his part of the family fortune. Along the way there will be betrayals and dangerous detours into unfriendly kingdoms and a maiden, Isabel (Natalie Portman) who will join the quest and prove herself more than equal to Fabious and his Knights and of course very superior to Thaddeus.

Satire Fail

The plot of "Your Highness" is a derivative satire cum appreciation of cheesy period action movies like "Dragonslayer" and "Krull." "Your Highness" is pitched to a level of poking fun at these movies but in reality, "Your Highness" plays far less sarcastically than was, I believe, the original intent. It's not that "Your Highness" ever takes its adventure plot seriously but rather that the satire is less pointed than it should be.

That could also be a function of the complete lack of invention in all of the humor of "Your Highness." Random four letter words, penis jokes, bare breasts and marijuana are all alluded to and shown in "Your Highness" and yet none of it earned a laugh. Star Danny McBride, who also co-wrote the script for "Your Highness" with Ben Best, falls for the classic trap of thinking the mere presentation of the outrageous is funny.

Franco and Portman

James Franco is engagingly game as the heroic Fabious. The "127 Hours" Academy Award nominee is at times the only actor in "Your Highness" who understands the high satiric tone the film should be striving for; hitting his hero lines with the perfect mix of self awareness and pomposity. Unfortunately, the friendly chemistry Franco and McBride demonstrated in "Pineapple Express" is greatly lacking in "Your Highness."

Natalie Portman is the greatest victim of "Your Highness." Portman's Isabel fails as satire of comic book warrior chicks or as a send up of any recognizable movie character. Her comic delivery is stiff and her action heroine moments are so competent and believable that it fails as a satire of anything other than an idiot's notion of what women can or cannot do.

In the post-Ripley/Sarah Connor world it's simply not surprising or funny to see a woman kick ass and in the wake of overkill like "Sucker Punch" it's barely even titillating. So, one is left to wonder what function does Portman's character serve? If you have a good idea, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

Danny McBride has shown that he can be very funny in supporting roles in movies like "Pineapple Express" and "Tropic Thunder," among other films. Unfortunately, called upon to be a leading man he falls desperately flat. Worse yet, the satire of medieval adventure movies are just as flat and unfunny as McBride's lead performance.

"Your Highness" simply fails in every fashion.