The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

The same was true for the plot. There is no real feeling of suspense or tension. I bought the idea that the townspeople cared about their mountain, and they got me to care about it, too. But again, even a whimsical comedy should make you wonder about the outcome, just to engage you emotionally.

The only real suspense here was when it would stop raining, so the villagers could finish building the mound.

The scenes with the villagers playing tricks to keep the Englishmen from leaving were cute, but went on too long. The romance could have been sweet, but again there was nothing to it. No conflict, tension or character development. Why are these two people falling in love? (Plenty of potential obstacles since she's a maid and he's obviously upperclass). Again, even a whimsical love story should make you care.

Hugh Grant plays his usual mannerisms. Here they seemed exactly in place, perfect for a WWI era upper class Englishman. His only problem was the same as the other characters: no character development. (Oh, and an overly-slicked hairstyle that sometimes looked cemented in place.) But like the others, he didn't have enough substance to come alive.

Ian McNeice deserves highest marks here for his memorable take on a stock English character. Even his flamingo pink waistcoat was perfect.

The movie did make me laugh more than once, and it provided a pleasant if fairly forgettable evening's entertainment. However, I thought tht with a little more work and care, it could have been another Waking Ned Divine or Cold Comfort Farm. Both of these movies are just as whimsical as "The Englishman...", but they have a substance to their storytelling that makes you feel, at the end, that you've been somewhere, that you've been told a great story. I wish I could say the same here.


Movies that try hard to be funny usually aren't   April 3, 2002
E. Lambeth (Paso Robles, CA USA)
3 out of 17 found this review helpful

I guess you have to be a huge fan of British humor. I mean, so huge, that you love a British movie just for being, well, a British comedy. I'm a big fan of Hugh Grant. I enjoyed Notting Hill and I LOVED Four Weddings and a Funeral.
But this movie was a lame duck. It's supposed to be funny that a little town gets all in an uproar over the fact that what they perceive to be their 'mountain' is a handful of feet short of being considered a mountain, by mountain height standards (MHS). So bent out of shape are they, that they keep the mountain measurers in the town, and while they're not looking, the townsfolk pile dirt and grass on top of the hill, because apparently a hill with a 16 foot mount on top of it makes a mountain.
It's a one joke movie where the joke just isn't funny. To please the viewers, they throw in a romance at the end of the movie that doesn't work. She starts off hitting on our hero just to keep him around, but then falls in love with him...but you really can't tell when that actually happened, considering the romance was thrown in near the end of the movie.

The music gets silly at points where you're supposed to laugh. But the dialogue isn't funny, they make fun of Grant for being English (as if that's worse than being Welsh and obsessing over a hill), and it's just hard to keep wondering how long it'll be until this two hours of snoozefest is finished. For a swerve, the picture on the cover of the movie is a more updated one of Grant. They were smart in not showing what he really looked like in the movie on the cover.
The introduction of the movie was awful, but the scenery was pretty.

Definitely rent this one before you decide to buy. Buying this without previously viewing it would be a HUGE mistake.


Great Movie - Good Transfer   February 14, 2002
Anaguma (Platteville, WI USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is a GREAT little movie that is set in and was filmed in Wales, about a group of townspeople whose pride was challenged by the vageries of bureaucracy, where their local "mountain" turned out to be a "hill" under British definitions. The challenge united the town under the leadership of "Morgan the Goat" (Colm Meaney)and his nemesis, the town vicar, to overcome their mountain's classification by the British Geographical Survey, Hugh Grant, who sees what's going on and comes around to the town's side.

This is supposedly based on a true story which makes it even more interesting. The soundtrack fits perfectly and reminds me of the "Chocolat" soundtrack. There aren't many extras but for the price, you can't lose.