There Be Dragons

Hmmm. Well “Reign of Fire” it isn’t, nor is there even a fellow called “Pete” with a cave - so if you are after a fantasy adventure then maybe not. If you are looking for a slightly messy history-cum-religious story of the acclaimed “Opus Dei” founding Spanish revolutionary priest, then maybe stick with it. Charlie Cox takes on the priestly role as Josemaria Escrivá who is being investigated on the instructions of Pope John Paul II - he is a prime candidate for canonisation. It was cannon of another sort, though, that this journalist discovers played much more of a role in the life of many people in a civil war riven Spain as his subject tried to established his more universal church. He is Roberto Torres (Dougray Scott) who’s terminally declining father (Manolo) is in an hospital bed. Their relationship is strained at best, and as the plot develops we learn a little more about what caused that as well as of his father’s relationship with the man he is to evaluate and of his activist mother “Leila” (Golshifteh Faharani). The flashbacks illustrate the conflicting lives of Torres and Escrivá as they adopt different approaches to the strife and the latter has to keep his profession under wraps for fear of persecution, or worse, from the communists who saw the church as complicit in the Franco-led deposition of the elected government. It is a good looking drama this, and there are a few scenes early on featuring Charles Dance and Sir Derek Jacobi that suggest we might be in for something a little more substantial, but sadly neither Charlie Cox nor Wes Bentley - as the young Manolo Torres, really have much weight to put behind a story of two undoubtedly brave and troubled men. The narrative darts about too much and presents us with an all too superficial glimpse of not just these characters, but also of the entire wartime scenario. It’s an hybrid of too many storylines and doesn’t really do any of them justice and after a while the effects of the cheery smile of Cox started to wear thin. It looks like it would be a story worth the telling, but there are just too many disjointed roles and dodgy Spanish accents to make this special. Sorry.