The ancient Celtic romance of forbidden love, later transformed by Anglo-Norman and German writers into the courtly literature of lies and delusions, has been reduced here to a sappy Dark Ages soap opera interrupted by brutal battles and dialogue of astonishing prosaic deadness. At its core is a pair of lovers no contemporary audience could possibly care for, and at the periphery are characters that threaten to become interesting but never quite do. "O, what have I done?" wails one lover, and director Kevin Reynolds and writer Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate") might be asking the same question.

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