Don Quixote (2000)

Deeply influenced by his reading of books on chivalrous knights and damsels in distress, a retired country gentleman (John Lithgow) imagines himself as Don Quixote of La Mancha and sets forth on a series of adventures. To this venture, he is accompanied by his poor neighbor Sancho (Bob Hoskins). An ambitious attempt to present a fairly faithful adaptation of the Miguel Cervantes classic, it's a pretty flat film, a sort of a celluloid CliffsNotes version of the book. It looks great thanks to the authentic Spanish locations handsomely shot by David Connell but like so many classic novels (MOBY DICK, THE GREAT GATSBY), I suspect DON QUIXOTE is unfilmable though many attempts from Orson Welles to Terry Gilliam have been tried. In the title role, Lithgow (who got a SAG nomination for his work here) is surprisingly good but Hoskins' cockney Sancho Panza seems glaringly out of place. Dutifully if unimaginatively directed by Peter Yates (BULLITT) with a solid score by Richard Hartley. With Isabella Rossellini and Vanessa Williams, who's more effective as Aldonza than Dulcinea.