BLACK DEATH takes place in medieval England during the time of the Plague, and follows a young novice monk (Eddie Redmayne) who joins a group of Christian mercenaries led by a knight (Sean Bean of LORD OF THE RINGS fame) in their search for a nearby village that seems to have been spared by the plague. Is this because they've made a pact with the devil, in which case they must be destroyed? Or, do they have some other secret?
The novice monk is having a crisis of fatih of his own. He's in love and has already broken his vows by sleeping with a woman (Kimberly Nixon) who he sent away to safety when the plague struck his town. Now, he's joined this group just to get back to her.
Meanwhile, Sean Bean's knight character is the exact opposite -- although he can be a cold blooded killer, he's so certain in his faith that he doesn't question it for a moment.
The movie is heavy with atmosphere, beautifully shot, and suspenseful as hell, especially in the final passages when the whole "test of faith" angle is really amped up after a somewhat lagging middle section. I was never able to guess which direction the story was heading, and was constantly surprised with the territory and ideas that it explored, which is always refreshing. On top of all of this, all of the performances were solid and all of the characters were well drawn, so I always cared about what was happening and who it was happening to.
The only potential flaw in the flick, aside from the lagging middle section I mentioned before, is the fact that the story is framed in such a way that it deals with Christians being persecuted at the hands of Pagans, when in reality I'm pretty sure it was almost always the other way around. Still, this isn't supposed to be a history lesson, it's a specific story about a specific group of people, and I liked that however superstitious all the characters were, and however much the film seemed to take place in an apocalyptic time, it never strayed from the realm of reality.
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