Period films seem to always run into troubles concerning anachronisms. No matter how hard filmmakers try, something is always missed and inevitably, there will be websites devoted to spotlighting the error. Perhaps the creators of A Knight's Tale decided that rather than attempt to eliminate anachronisms, they would embrace them. It's a unique and bold concept and one that saves this otherwise unoriginal film.

The premise is that during the 14th century jousting tournaments are the equivalent social events to today's football, hockey and wrestling matches. This is where the nobility and peasants mingle for a raucous, raunchy good time.

As the story opens, our hero, William Thatcher (Heath Ledger), and his fellow squires face a dilemma. It seems that their Knight has gone on to the great jousting tournament in the sky. With their knightly meal ticket dead, the squires can either scrounge and beg for food or William can don the armor and joust in his master's place. After all, it should be easy -- their master has all but won the match after the first two runs so that all William has to do for the final run is essentially just stay on his horse.

William does, in fact, win the match and as he is counting the winnings with his fellow squires he hits upon the idea that he can do this full time. His dream has always been to become a knight and it would seem that this is his chance.

Of course, there's only one catch to this plan in that William is not of noble birth and only those of noble birth may participate in the tournaments. Enter the naked, dirty and starved Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Brettany), who makes the trio of squires a deal: If they agree to clothe and feed him, he will forge patents (documents declaring nobility) for William to make him a knight.

As if adhering to some stone-chisled rule, William meets during his tournament career (in no particular order) Prince Edward, an evil champion of the tournaments named Adhemar (Rufus Sewell) and the beautiful daughter of a nobleman, Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon).

William, with the help of some impressive introductions from Chaucer (which stop just short of including Michael Buffer's "let's get ready to rumble!" declaration), quickly becomes something of a sensation in the tournament circuit and the new arch rival of the evil Count Adhemar. He also manages to become the only knight in the tournaments able to charm Jocelyn's affections from her.

It really doesn't take much to see where the story will lead. Of course William and Adhemar will face each other, of course William will get the girl and of course Prince Edward will play some pivotal role after William impresses him with his bravery. This is all so obviously predictable.

So why, then, does the movie work? Well, about those anachronisms...As you probably know by now, the film uses modern rock music in its soundtrack. More than just use the music, however, the film incorporates it into its world. Characters sing along with the lyrics and stomp and clap in time to Queen's "We Will Rock You." The audience does the Wave and you can hear the sounds of air horns blasting among the cheers and whistles. Characters infuse modern slang into Hollywood-ized medieval dialogue and they wear clothing that is more a contemporary interpretation of ancient styles.

The filmmakers and cast tackle all of this with such reckless abandon that the film practically explodes with a sense of fun. These are not people who are taking this material seriously, which would have been disastrous. Every scene is played with a wink and the energy level is so high that you can't help but to be swept up by it.

Yes, the plot is hopelessly recycled, but rather than groan at every anticipated twist and turn, I could only smile. In a way, this film isn't unlike watching a modern sporting event in that you already know all of the rules and the sorts of things you can expect to see during the game, but it's still fun to watch.

People complain that nothing original comes out of Hollywood these days. That may very well be true, but A Knight's Tale proves that you can still have fun by approaching old material in a new way.