THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Hugh Grant, Colm Meaney, Tara Fitzgerald, Ian McNeice, Kenneth Griffith. Screenplay/Director: Christopher Monger.
If it had not been for Jim Carrey, Hugh Grant might have been hailed as *the* breakout star of 1994. His affable, self-effacing persona turned FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL int the biggest "art house" hit in the history of the country, leading to a not-so-coincidental increase in business for another Grant film, SIRENS, after his face was substituted for Elle Macpherson's bare backside in that film's print ads. THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN might have faced a monumental marketing challenge, or at least a name change, if not for the advantage of being Hugh Grant's first post-WEDDINGS effort. Unfortunately, it's no honeymoon. Grant's fans could be massively disappointed, both by his relatively minor role and by the film's frequently tedious pace.
Grant plays Reginald Anson, an English surveyor who comes to Wales in 1917 with his partner George Garrad (Ian McNeice) to map the terrain for the war effort. Among their tasks is determining the height of Ffynnon Garw, a geographical feature which the locals take inordinate pride in calling "the first mountain in Wales." However, Anson and Garrad find that Ffynnon Garw is sixteen feet short of the 1,000 foot height required for the designation of a mountain. Refusing to accept that Ffynnon Garw is just a "hill," the locals, led by innkeeper Morgan (Colm Meaney) and the Reverend Jones (Kenneth Griffith) concoct an elaborate plan to add the required height to Ffynnon Garw, and to keep Anson and Garrad in town as long as necessary to obtain a favorable re-measurement.
The story, based on a tale from the family of Welsh writer/ director Christopher Monger, begins as a promising enough fable about fish out of water and a legendary act of combined community will. Monger does a nice job of establishing the scene, introducing the quirks of the characters in the matter-of-fact manner of an accomplished tale-teller who relates a story he knows to be fanciful with utmost earnestness. The clash of personalities between the merrily profane Morgan "the Goat" and the ever-apoplectic Reverend Jones is entertaining, thanks largely to a good-natured performance by Colm Meaney, and Stephen Endelman provides a bright and lilting score which keeps the tone light.
Sadly, although it is clear that Monger has a great affection for this particular story, it isn't nearly as interesting as he seems to think it is, at least not for 100 minutes. The key problem is that as much as he tries to convey why this "mountain" is so important to the people of Ffynnon Garw, he never quite manages to do so. He toys both with the idea of Welsh identity being tied to the mountains, and with the general sense of loss brought on by the first World War, but as hard as he tries to draw us into the imperative of the Ffynnon Garw mission, he can't make it matter as much to the audience. While the efforts of the townspeople to thward Anson and Garrad in their every attempt to leave are sometimes amusing, there is a lot of space between them, and THE ENGLISHMAN slows down to become a sporadically whimsical bore.
It also appears that the presence of Hugh Grant resulted in an ill-advised restructuring of the script. The story really should have been about the Welsh townsfolk, not about the two Englishman, and indeed Hugh Grant is little more than a peripheral figure for fully half of the film. Then Tara Fitzgerald (Grant's wife in SIRENS) appears as a woman of ill repute brought to town to keep Anson occupied, Anson becomes sympathetic to the determination of the Welsh villagers, and suddenly we have an unnecessary and unwelcome love story thrown into the mix. Grant really just walks through this part, relying on his crinkly smile and hesitating delivery and little else. If the story had to focus on one of the Englishman, it should have been Garrad, played with puffed-up impatience by Ian McNeice. Of course, McNeice is only an actor; Hugh Grant is a movie star. THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN has some charms, and an appealing sense of place. It is also a case of an hour's worth of story stretched an extra forty minutes, and of a big name star in an essentially supporting role who becomes a tail wagging the dog.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 mountains from molehills: 5.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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