The most successful Polish pic of the year, hustling 640,000 admissions, “The Hexer” is a semi-jokey, sword-and-sorcery yarn with enough dragons, monsters and swordplay to entertain tykes but not much for anyone over 12. Strong cast, led by Michal Zebrowski as the title warlock and vet Zbigniew Zamachowski as an insouciant bard, lend stature, but the script is far too episodic. Pic looks like what it is: an edited version of a TV series.
Christopher Lambert lookalike Zebrowski plays the conflicted Geralt, a “hexer” who kills monsters that threaten humans. After becoming chief warrior of Cintra, he fights off an evil suitor who’s after the queen’s feisty daughter (Agata Buzek). He bumps into a former g.f., sorceress Yennefer (Grazyna Wolszczak), on his way to killing a cheesy CG dragon; is wounded by another monster and nursed back to health by Ciri (Ewa Wisniewska) in an all-femme sect and finally has to rescue her from the bad guys who overthrew Cintra. Zebrowski handles himself well in the sword fights but, at well over two hours, the movie isn’t as enjoyable as it sounds.
