PLUNKETT & MACLEANE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
PLUNKETT & MACLEANE, a lavish costume drama set in London in 1748, has it all: huge, powdered wigs, men with lipstick, rock music, fast edits, squalor and decadence. In short it's the perfect movie for those people who think the main problem with the cinema today is that it lacks an MTV video gloss.
First-time film director Jake Scott has an extensive resume of -- surprise! -- rock videos. PLUNKETT & MACLEANE is a hyperactive movie that is a treat for the eyes but offers little for the mind. Billed as a comedy, it doesn't contain a single funny scene with the possible exception of a remark about halitosis. When someone uses bad breath as an insult and that elicits a film's only laugh, you know the movie is in trouble.
Loosely based on the tale of a real-life robber known as the "Gentleman Highwayman," the movie is BONNIE AND CLYDE meets BARRY LYNDON, all scored with a rock sensibility.
A typical scene, filmed through a golden filter, is set at a lavish costume ball in which the decorations appear to be leftover floats from the Main Street Parade at Disneyland. The floor looks like an Escher print, and the heavy rock beat is as topical as the music from your local radio station. Did I mention the crazy costumes?
The setup for the plot is that two working-class criminals develop a scam whereby one, Macleane (Jonny Lee Miller), will impersonate a gentleman in order to find who is carrying the most money and valuables. Plunkett (Robert Carlyle) will act like he is Macleane's servant. Together they will rob the coaches of the richest of the aristocracy. This life of crime has predictable twists and turns, right down to the ending, which is lifted out of a hundred similar movies.
Liv Tyler, as the story's love interest, Lady Rebecca, continues in her tradition of delivering lifeless performances to characters that are already badly underwritten. At the party in which she is introduced, she is inexplicably the only person, male or female, without a wig.
The best supporting character is played by Alan Cumming, as Lord Rochester, a bisexual dandy who sports the show's most outlandish wardrobes, with his large purple hat and accompanying crimson and lavender jacket being perhaps the most wonderfully silly.
Visually attractive like VELVET GOLDMINE, the movie suffers the same problem. It's a good-looking picture, but it's never more than just a good-looking picture. The characters are poorly drawn, the script is DOA and the director only knows how to create flash. Boiled down to its three-minute rock video essence, it might prove diverting. At a full-movie length, it tests the viewer's stamina.
PLUNKETT & MACLEANE runs 1:33. It is rated R for some strong violence, sexuality and language and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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