It's bad enough that "A Knight's Tale" takes so many liberties with historical "truth" (let's just say historians will probably have nightmares after seeing the film).

But this medieval action-adventure film poses something of a dilemma for movie critics. On one hand, the movie is so utterly contrived and ludicrously anachronistic that it should be easy to pan. At the same time, however, the material is delivered with such youthful exuberance that it's difficult to dismiss it outright.

Also, the movie is so unpretentious that it seems to be laughing at itself at times, which is an attribute that certainly gives it an edge over most of its too-serious competition. After all, few other movies would attempt such an offbeat, risky mixture of action, romance, cheeky humor and pop and rock music from the '70s and '80s — even if the results make you feel like you're watching "MTV's 'Gladiator.' "

By the way, the film's title refers not to an actual knight but to William Thatcher (Aussie actor Heath Ledger), who's the squire for one. Unfortunately, his lord and master has just dropped dead, effectively putting an end to the gravy train for William and his fellow squires (Mark Addy and Alan Tudyk).

What's worse, the master was in a position to win a jousting tournament, so William dons his armor and manages to stay on his horse long enough to collect the prize. William then opts to continue impersonating a knight, with help from fast-talking herald Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany) and a lady blacksmith who fabricates a suit of more lightweight, yet stronger, armor.

But there are couple of complications to the plan, not the least of which is that impersonating a knight is a crime. Nevertheless, William (now calling himself Sir Ulrich) continues the masquerade and wins several tournaments along the way.

His prowess with a sword and lance impresses the beautiful Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) and creates a bitter rivalry with Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell), an honest-to-goodness (or in his cast, honest-to-badness) knight who bests our hero in an earlier tournament.

What happens next won't surprise anyone. But the action moves fairly well (even for a film more than two hours long), and filmmaker Brian Helgeland's script contains a few nuggets that are much smarter than the rest of the material.

That said, they whole thing still probably wouldn't have worked without this cast, especially Ledger, who has the charm — as well as the physical flair — necessary for his demanding part. Meanwhile, newcomer Sossamon is surprisingly good, and Sewell seems to relish his bad-guy part.

They're all nearly upstaged by British actor Bettany, though, whose performances smartly reminds us this is supposed to be camp and little else.

"A Knight's Tale" is rated PG-13 for violence (jousting and swordfighting), scattered use of profanity (including the European versions of some familiar curse words), brief male nudity and some lewd comments. Running time: 132 minutes.

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