I don’t know why the movie got such poor reception, as it pretty well matches what you can expect from a Middle Ages withcraft movie filmed but not written by Terry Gilliam — no less fantasy, and no less talent, than in Twelve Monkeys. It’s just that the script is a little less ambitious, Heath Ledger is terrible (Matt Damon doesn’t try to change his voice or accent, but at least that way he doesn’t fail — besides, the characters speak English whether they’re pretending to be French or German, so who cares anyway?) and what’s really missing is emotional attachment. But, on that level, the only difference is that Twelve Monkeys ended badly (very); apart from that, Gilliam isn’t someone who’ll make you cry for his characters, or even empathize much with them.

All in all, it’s more one of those big-budget Hallmark TV movies than a masterpiece of cinema, and I would quite possibly have been annoyed at paying for a theater seat to watch it, but it’s quite acceptable as a DVD rental.