Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
Playing Dungeons & Dragons is a singular experience. It’s a chance to plumb the depths of your friend’s creativity in a way that few other activities can match. Like putting on a play or making a film, the teamwork involved in bringing the game to life in a fulfilling way forges a bond between you and the other players that will last you for years after you put away your twenty-sided die. If you’ve never played D&D, you’ve still been exposed to its tropes in a dozen different ways. Fantasy novels, mythology, heck, even Star Wars all call upon the idea of the classic hero’s arc and most D&D campaigns will spend at least a little time touching on that story idea.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a new film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, does a perfect job of mixing classic fantasy lore and the wild invention present in most actual D&D sessions. You’ve seen this story before. A group of underdogs are pitted against a merciless and all-powerful villain, but this film makes that formula sing. Its bones are those of a modern blockbuster. There’s magnificent CGI creatures and elaborate set pieces. But where Honor Among Thieves stands out is in its sincerity. In a post-Marvel world where it seems every big budget film spends most of its runtime being completely self-aware and never taking its content too seriously, this film feels like a treasured relic from a long forgotten golden age.
The film centers on Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine), a charismatic bandit whose skills seem to begin and end at writing and singing ballads. His closest companion is Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) a gruff exiled warrior. The two are quickly joined by a mediocre sorcerer named Simon (Justice Smith) and a shape shifting demon called Doric (Sophia Lillis). The foursome set out to steal the fortune of former ally named Forge (Hugh Grant) after he betrays them. Edgin main drive isn’t treasure but his daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman) who is trapped in Forge’s care. While most of the team contributes physical or magical abilities to the mission, Edgin mostly tries to figure out how to handle the latest setback often having to settle for Plan D.
Like any good D&D campaign Honor Among Thieves has a good amount of action and all of it is well choreographed. Goldstein and Daley made their name on the hysterical thriller Game Night in 2018 and the two films combined demonstrate the duo’s great understanding of spatial geography during action sequences. Honestly these two seem to get it more than most big budget action directors. As wild as the action is, the storytelling may be more so. The backstory being narrated at the film’s opening is interrupted numerous times for hilarious asides and a heist sequence involves magic portals in ways I’ve never seen a film put to screen before.
The four travelers also venture into a deep dungeon, aided by the noble, knightly Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page), and go up against a particularly portly dragon. The beast is not entirely unthreatening but is soon revealed to be yet another endearing underdog in a film stuffed with them. Dungeons & Dragons partly works because the audience roots for everyone, even the adversaries, to have some fun. The final act, especially, conjures the same joy that drives the game: The further you journey, the deeper your connection to the characters playing alongside you.
