MovieChat Forums > Il racconto dei racconti - Tale of Tales (2016) Discussion > Three kings in the same country? SPOILER...

Three kings in the same country? SPOILERS!

posted 9 years ago by Mikee333
7 replies | jump to latest

So John C. Reilly was king. As was Vincent Cassel. Also Toby Jones. All kings at the same time, in what is apparently the same country.

Looking at the imdb listing, I see they are credited as King of Strongcliff, King of Highhills, King of Longtrellis, but was this at all established in the movie? I know there were a couple of short scenes where all the royalties could be seen together, yet the relationship between them was never made clear.

To me it stuck out as a plot hole, that I couldn't wrap my head around.

Similarly with the witch(?) in the woods, who literarily nursed the old woman back to youth, when she was hanging in the tree. Had we seen this nursing witch before? It seemed to me she was just a random character who suddenly popped up and was gone again, without any explanation. And when the woman who was nursed into youth suddenly started turning old again, we also got no explanation what so ever. Was there a time limit to the spell? Did she have to do something to make it last? It seemed there were some vital parts of the story missing.

As with the ending, when the sister comes walking back to the castle, without her skin. I thought it was building up to a big confrontation, where the young sister would regret throwing her skinned sibling out. But no. Nothing. She just walked up to the castle, and then we cut to the next totally unrelated scene. WTF?

I really enjoyed the look and sound of this film, not to mention the fact that it's one of way too few films of the fantasy genre which caters to adult audiences, but I wish the stories would have been a little better.

[–] Kumagoro 9 years ago

You don't seem really familiar with the political scenario of Italy's Renaissance, a fantastical version of which this set of fables (as their original source) is set in. Yes, many many kings and princes, reigning over tiny fiefs, next to each other, marry each other's daughters, attending each other's marriages and funerals. Not very hard to grasp, IMO.

As for "random characters popping up with no explanation", that's just fairytale 101. Do you remember Cinderella's fairy godmother or Pinocchio's blue fairy or Hansel & Gretel's witch being given a comprehensive back story before being introduced? C'mon now. She ends up in the forest and in the forest there's a witch, because of course in the fairytale forest there's a witch. End of story.

[–] Mikee333 9 years ago

You are correct in that I am not at all familiar with the political scenario of Italy's Renaissance, but my point was that even if they are kings in neighbouring fiefs, this was not at all established in the movie. As far as I can remember, we were never introduced to the fact that the three stories all played out in three different locations. It seemed they all occured within the same fief, and at first I thought they might be all be from different times, with each king being of a new generation, and a final revelation to who was who's parent. But seeing the kings and queens together at the same time ruined that theory.

And even though this is based upon a fairytale, that is not an excuse for what is essentially sloppy screenwriting. Authors might have been able to get away with deus ex machina-events back in ancient Greece, but today that simply doesn't fly no more. I've read that the writer/director supposedly took a lot of liberties with other parts of the adaptation, so why not also smoothen out these sharp edges?

[–] [email protected] 8 years ago

Some people just have to have information spoon fed to them.

[–] tle_mgr 8 years ago

too much Lord of the Rings. lol

Oh my god? Two kings sharing the same continent?

[–] milicentbrovovich 8 years ago

I don't want to insult you, Mike333, but the film was very much all show and no tell and I felt it clearly did show that these were Kings of their own small domains which seemed to be next to one another, separated by forests and water. This is very true (albeit fantastical) to what happened in many areas of the world. Lots of Kings in what is now known as the same country.

As for other parts of the story which didn't really end or we didn't see a conclusion to, I understand the irritation but this is a fairy tale movie and fairy tales ARE bonkers and weird and strange and they don't all end in a satisfactory way. I would have liked to have seen what happened to the Other Sister too but I didn't feel it was a plot hole and I loved the movie.

[–] SSteveL 8 years ago

[...] this is a fairy tale movie and fairy tales ARE bonkers and weird and strange and they don't all end in a satisfactory way.

I don't think this is true. Fairy tales are often strange (if only to us moderns), but this is not the same as an unresolved story. An unsatisfactory ending, on the other hand, indicates poor storytelling.

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[–] buzios 8 years ago

The concept of a country does not apply. They were kings of three adjacent kingdoms who visited one another for important occasions.