8 / 10
Official trailer
Honor Among Thieves is the rare studio fantasy film that knows what it is and commits to it without apology.
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley directed and co-wrote. Chris Pine plays Edgin Darvis, a former Harper bard turned thief. Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga, a barbarian who’s also his best friend. Justice Smith plays Simon, an inexperienced sorcerer. Sophia Lillis plays Doric, a tiefling druid. Regé-Jean Page plays Xenk Yendar, a paladin so virtuous he’s barely tolerable. Hugh Grant plays Forge Fitzwilliam, the rogue antagonist.
The film cost approximately a hundred and fifty million dollars to produce, made about two hundred million worldwide, and is generally regarded as the best D&D adaptation by some distance. I had a ball with this one. It’s funny without sneering at its own world, the party feels like people I’d want at the table, and Pine plays a lovable failure with more charm than I expected from him. It stops at an 8 because it’s a lark, a terrific one, with less weight than the films I rate higher.
The screenplay is the achievement. Goldstein and Daley have made career-defining work on Spider-Man: Homecoming and Game Night, and they brought the same understanding of structural comedy to D&D that they brought to those films. The script gets its laughs through character work instead of through one-liners. The fantasy material is treated as serious adventure with comedy emerging from the people inside it instead of from sarcastic commentary on the genre.
The Tone
The film could have been a satire of fantasy, or a solemn epic trying to compete with Lord of the Rings. It chose to be a heist comedy in a fantasy setting, and I think that decision is the whole difference between this film and the earlier attempts at a D&D movie.
The people happen to live in a world with dragons and magic, so they treat all of it as ordinary, and the jokes come from who they are. That’s exactly the right call.
The party dynamic is the film’s foundation. Edgin and Holga have a friendship that predates the plot and survives the plot’s end. Simon’s confidence problems are real and slow to resolve. Doric’s distrust of humans is earned and isn’t fully resolved by the runtime. Xenk’s overwhelming virtue is a comedy engine but the script doesn’t treat him as a joke. The party feels like a party because the characters have specific dynamics that the script respects.
Holga and Edgin’s friendship is what I’ll remember longest. Rodriguez plays muscle with a soft center, and I bought completely that these two had years together before the movie started.
For Writers
An ensemble cast works when each member has a distinct relationship to each other member. Honor Among Thieves writes individual two-character dynamics across all the pairings in the group. Edgin and Holga have a different dynamic than Edgin and Simon. Holga and Doric have a different dynamic than Holga and Xenk. The result is that the party feels populated instead of scripted. The lesson is that group dynamics are the sum of pairings. Write each pairing.
The Action
The action sequences are well-staged. The Underdark sequence, the maze chase, the dragon escape, and the final assault all have specific geographic logic and specific stakes. The film doesn’t throw set pieces at the audience because the budget requires set pieces. Each major action sequence advances character or plot or both.
The dragon Themberchaud is the production’s standout creature effect. The character is fat and menacing and played for both laughs and danger. The dragon’s pursuit of the party through underground tunnels is one of the better dragon sequences in recent fantasy cinema. The audience can feel the dragon’s specific weight. That’s also literal in this case.
Themberchaud is my favorite thing in the film. A dragon too heavy for the tunnels it’s chasing people through is a joke and a threat at the same time, and I think the effects team deserves as much credit as the writers for making both work.
For Writers
Creature design that commits to specific physical qualities creates more memorable creatures than generic intimidation. Themberchaud is fat. That’s the design choice. Everything else about the creature flows from it. The dragon is awkward in tight spaces and has trouble flying long distances. It’s desperate to defend a lair that contains the food it requires. The lesson is that specific physical traits in a fantasy creature can drive the creature’s entire behavior. Generic dragons are boring. The fat dragon is memorable.
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant plays Forge as a charming sociopath who believes he’s the hero of his own story. The performance is in the same tone as his late-career work in Paddington 2 and The Gentlemen. Grant has settled into a phase of his career in which he plays villains with theatrical conviction. Forge is one of his best.
The script lets him do real work. Forge has specific motivations rooted in his backstory with Edgin. His takeover of Neverwinter is comprehensible as political opportunism instead of as cartoonish evil. The third-act revelation about what he’s been planning hits because the film has spent time establishing him as a particular kind of person.
Grant looks like he’s having the time of his life, and so am I whenever he’s on screen. He plays Forge as a man who’d sell you out and expect a thank-you note, and I’d happily watch a whole film of him lying to people.
For Writers
A villain who’s charming is more dangerous than a villain who’s obviously menacing. Forge can manipulate Edgin’s daughter because she finds him likable. The film respects this dynamic. The audience can also find Forge likable, and that makes him dangerous. The lesson is that the antagonist’s most threatening trait is often charm instead of power. Charm bypasses the protagonist’s defenses. Power can be opposed. Charm has to be resisted.
Craft Note
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley directed and co-wrote with Michael Gilio. Chris Pine as Edgin Darvis. Michelle Rodriguez as Holga Kilgore. Regé-Jean Page as Xenk Yendar. Justice Smith as Simon Aumar. Sophia Lillis as Doric. Hugh Grant as Forge Fitzwilliam. Daisy Head as Sofina. Lorne Balfe scored. Approximately one hundred and fifty million dollar production budget. Two hundred and eight million worldwide gross. Released March 2023. Paramount Pictures. Based on the tabletop role-playing game produced by Wizards of the Coast.
Is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves worth watching?
8/10. It’s the best D&D film ever made and a better fantasy adventure than most of what the 2020s have produced. The screenplay is smart, the cast commits, Themberchaud is a delight and Grant steals every scene he’s in.
The light touch that makes it so much fun is also what keeps it from a 9, and I’m happy with that trade. The earlier D&D adaptations are best forgotten, and this one justified the reset. Watch it.
