The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a cool movie, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing. The tone hits all the right notes; it's farsical and, dare I say, quixotic. Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver bring a lot of charisma, and the side characters are interesting, too.

I read excerpts of Don Quixote in school, but I haven't read the entire thing. I remember liking it, though. I don't think I've watched anything Terry Gilliam has been involved with, other than Tristram Shandy, which I felt like was one of the worst movies I had ever seen.

I liked Adam Driver in the first season of Girls, which was the only one I saw. Jonathan Pryce was immediately likeable to me in the trailer. I didn't recognize him from Game of Thrones at all.

The movie has a nice whimsical, dare I say quixotic, aspect to it. I enjoyed the sort of magical elements it brought in, like when Toby sees scenes from his past like they're really happening right in front of him. It worked well that when it started out, you felt like Toby was really an ass, and he kept that up for most of the movie.

The gypsy guy was cool. I liked that he kept popping up for the entire movie. It had a lot of funny moments, like when the boss' wife was all over Toby, and all he wanted to do was play the DVD. Or when Toby had the basket on his head during the fight.

I wound up watching an Italian version of the movie, so when Toby was talking to Angelica's father in Spanish, the subtitles were in Italian. Conveniently, since I speak some Spanish, I knew what they were saying, anyway. But it was funny when Toby swept away the subtitles and said, "We don't need these, we can understand each other." They even made a noise. At first I thought he was sweeping some coins off the bar or something.

I really liked the tone of the movie. It's almost like an Elizabethan play. The women's costumes at the Russian guy's castle were cool. It was funny when Quixote talked down to Toby, since Toby actually has a higher social ranking.

The plot was well written. It was good thinking having the police be after Toby, so he had a reason to stay with Quixote. It was funny that he kept calling him Don, like that was his first name. The way he mispronounced "chivalry" added some character. I guess they had a long time to work on the plot, since it took like 30 years for the movie to be made.

It was cool how long they let us think that he had really found coins by the mine. It was a surprise for everyone when they turned out to be washers. I did feel like the middle was a bit longer than it needed to be, probably about the time when they went to the town with the refugees.

I liked that there was usually an explanation for why Toby might imagine some things, like falling asleep or hitting his head. It was a nice touch that he found Angelica's scarf and wore it for a while. You could tell that Adam and Jonathan we're having a lot of fun. Adam is actually part of the reason the movie finally got made, because he helped get funding for it.

It was so sad when everyone was laughing at Quixote. He should have just played it off like he didn't know they were laughing at him, and still been all proud and stuff. Then he wouldn't have to feel embarrassed. It was a huge shock when Toby accidentally killed him. It probably shouldn't have been, since it's right in the name of the movie. I tried to convince myself it was for the better, since he was kind of insane, but I didn't wind up believing it.

I was happy that Toby ended up with Angelica. The ending wasn't quite right, though. I didn't like that he basically turned into Don Quixote and rode off into the sunset. I guess they're trying to convey that Quixote lives on, but it made it too much of a fantasy. Sure, the movie is laced with fantastical elements, but I like to think that Toby and Angelica lived on in reality.