Your Highness

The truth about Your Highness isn't that it's the "worst movie ever made" (though it is very, very bad) or that it's proof that David Gordon Green was just kidding with his early indie films George Washington and All The Real Girls. Your Highness is quite simply the answer to a question. Given the chance to co-write, executive produce, and work with director he wants who's also a friend, just what is Danny McBride capable of? Well, now we know and it's a anachronistic medieval comedy that takes time to make light of rape, pedophilia, drug use, and the manhood of a small, effete British man named Julie (Toby Jones). Judging by the disinterested performances of McBride, James Franco (whose work here explains his Oscar hosting), Zooey Deschanel, and everyone else I can only assume that Green and McBride though saying the lines was all they had to do and that there was something inherently hilarious about sending up sword-and-sorcery stereotypes. There's nothing wrong with being lowbrow on occasion but there's no movie here, just a giant joke that McBride and Green expected us all to be in on. Natalie Portman shows up late as a warrior who won't put up with McBride's nonsense. To her credit Portman tries to act, but even though she looks great in female Robin Hood attire and doesn't shudder on the laugh lines she can't do more than be a diversion. Green and McBride can't even stop giggling at themselves long enough to make hay out of Portman stripping down to go swimming; the camera is so respectful I thought I was watching a French movie. Your Highness is too unambitious to go down as one of the great flops, but it does serve as a reminder of the perils of expecting too much from your friends.