Why the hype?

you'd need to make an actual argument, then. Saying you couldn't follow the dialogue is scarcely that. Try turning the volume up perhaps?

I am watching the film right now, and I must say that I don't find the accents hard to understand. But I'm a Canadian, and we generally find Scottish and Northern English accents easier to understand than southern ones (we historically had more Scottish cultural influence than English). The Kiwi accents were actually a little tougher for me.

As for accuracy, well, it would be rather difficult to duplicate the accent of Medieval Cumbria. Cumbric, a celtic language related to Welsh, was still spoken there up to the 11th Century. We know from genetic studies that it was the part of Englsnd with the greatest influx, as a percentage of the population, from Norway. Since it was not an urbanized region and played little part in English literature, we haven't much to go on for the period of the Black Death. Some evidence suggests that you would have heard quite a variety of speech in any given Cumbrian village at that time.

We don't expect audiences to listen to a film in Middle English, so the accents chosen by the actors are always a matter of artistic convention. E.G., in Roman Empire films, the Senators conventionally speak in upper class English, while the audience accepts a centurion with an American accent, and a slave with a cockney accent! For various symbolic reasons, it wouldn't accept a representation of Julius Caesar with an East End London or a Bronx accent.

Modern Cumbrian accents would do, I suppose, but how many actors would be available with genuine, from-the-cradle Cumbrian accents? The melange the film employed seems to me satisfactory to suggest the history, and showed much more thought put into it than one generally expects from films. It is seems to me to be the last thing to complain about in the film. After all, Hollywood thought it acceptable to have Tony Curtis, playing a medieval knight, say "Yonda is de castle uv me bruddah"

What is a "gradual acclamation" to language? Gradual introduction or gradual "acclimatisation", perhaps. But not acclamation. I would give no weight to the opinion of a critic who is so ignorant.

Same here (good, but no classic). It was on TV here in Germany last week (dubbed in German, so no idea how the original accents were). It has a weird attraction for me, and the images are definitely something off the beaten path. Now that you say "music video" --yes, you could say that, but it didn't seem to stick out, just contribute to the overall atmosphere of the film. I had to look for a space to record another film tonight, but decided that this film won't be deleted right away, so I might give it another go at some point.
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"Nobody ever said the IMDB was polite company." MichaelD on the Luther (2003) board.

Saw THE NAVIGATOR when I rented it out years ago and loved it because of its genuinely otherworldly feel---you literally see the whole picture from the P.O.V. of the medieval characters, how both wonderful and strange everything is for them---the twist ending was pretty downbeat,though,which sucked.

As for the hype, this flick is actually pretty much unknown by the general public (here in the U.S., except of fans of obscure foreign cinema like myself. Cool to know I haven't been the only one enchanted by its spell---worth hunting down just to see something strange, thoughtful, unique and different.