Following Sean Connery, who starred in Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1986 film of the book, Turturro – who also shares a writing credit — is great fun as the intellectual hero. (There are times, as when delivering a line like "The presence of soldiers at a theological debate is never a sign of good will or of neutrality," he sounds uncannily like Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.) William is a relatively nonjudgmental, somewhat modern figure — "I lack the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly" — who believes in light and learning, and (a key theme in the story) laughter, though he doesn't do all that much of it himself, other than tell a joke or two.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 23, 2019 11:01 UTC