Wales is often thought of as mountainous. Unfortunately most of the magnificent peaks straddle the border between England and Wales, and they cannot be considered wholly Welsh in their own rights. Somewhere deep in Welsh-land, a village nestles in tranquility amidst rolling hills and green pastures. There was this particularly large mound in the terrain, and the villagers are proud to call it the "mountain of Ffynnon Garw". "Its the first mountain in Wales!", remarks a villager.
Hugh Grant, cast as a English cartographer, is tasked to measure the exact height of Ffynnan Garw, and he bears unfortunate news to the villagers, that Fynnan Garw, at 980 feet, is 20 feet shy to qualify as a mountain, and hence won't appear in Her Majesty's Map.
Now the Welsh are a proud race. One only needs to take a leaf from Ryan Giggs, the Welsh soccer wizard who actually turned down playing for England in favour of Wales, and missed out competing in the World Cup altogether. ( On second thoughts, he didn't miss much. England the soccer team stutters much like Hugh Grant the Englishman.) The mere suggestion of Ffynnon Garw as a hill would have the villagers absolutely livid. The only thing worse than that is to have an Englishman tell them that.
Springing into action, the villagers decide to add twenty feet to the hill. It isn't such an easy task, considering the village has most of its able-bodied young men fighting the Great War in France. It is up to the women and children to rally for this valiant effort. Hugh Grant and his superior, a destestable Englishman with a huge potbelly and an even bigger head, are anxious to move on. Other hills are waiting for them to be measured. That's when Tara Fitzgerald, as an endearing village girl Betty, enters the story to try to charm the cartographers into staying for a few more days. And just in case, the Welsh make sure Grant's car was rendered useless, and they were left stranded in the village of Ffynnon Garw, with nothing more to do but to re-assess its status as a hill.
Grant plays his usual stuttering and apologetic self. While I felt his stuttering was way overdone, he comes across as very likable and a seriously nice gentleman. Beneath his self-effacing behaviour is a man who knows when to assert himself. There was this one and only time when faced with a medical emergency, he actually orders his boss to "bugger off". ("Bugger off" is one endearing phrase he utters throughout his movie career, if you haven't noticed.) Tara Fitzgerald appears as the romantic interest of Grant. The little game of seduction she plays makes your heart yearn once more for the high-school romances that once were sweet and whimsical. Colm Meaney is memorable as Morgan the Goat, the one magnetic personality who galvanises the village into action with his fiery ways and charms viewers with his cheeky ways.
This is not a Grant vehicle. His vehicle would be About a Boy. If anything, this is simply a vehicle for the Welsh fighting spirit which resides in the heart of every Welshman.
Who should stay away : Those who abhor spending Sundays at the picnic, those who can't stand Hugh Grant, and Welsh people, in the same vein as how Parisians stay away from Amelie.
Hugh Grant, cast as a English cartographer, is tasked to measure the exact height of Ffynnan Garw, and he bears unfortunate news to the villagers, that Fynnan Garw, at 980 feet, is 20 feet shy to qualify as a mountain, and hence won't appear in Her Majesty's Map.
Now the Welsh are a proud race. One only needs to take a leaf from Ryan Giggs, the Welsh soccer wizard who actually turned down playing for England in favour of Wales, and missed out competing in the World Cup altogether. ( On second thoughts, he didn't miss much. England the soccer team stutters much like Hugh Grant the Englishman.) The mere suggestion of Ffynnon Garw as a hill would have the villagers absolutely livid. The only thing worse than that is to have an Englishman tell them that.
Springing into action, the villagers decide to add twenty feet to the hill. It isn't such an easy task, considering the village has most of its able-bodied young men fighting the Great War in France. It is up to the women and children to rally for this valiant effort. Hugh Grant and his superior, a destestable Englishman with a huge potbelly and an even bigger head, are anxious to move on. Other hills are waiting for them to be measured. That's when Tara Fitzgerald, as an endearing village girl Betty, enters the story to try to charm the cartographers into staying for a few more days. And just in case, the Welsh make sure Grant's car was rendered useless, and they were left stranded in the village of Ffynnon Garw, with nothing more to do but to re-assess its status as a hill.
Grant plays his usual stuttering and apologetic self. While I felt his stuttering was way overdone, he comes across as very likable and a seriously nice gentleman. Beneath his self-effacing behaviour is a man who knows when to assert himself. There was this one and only time when faced with a medical emergency, he actually orders his boss to "bugger off". ("Bugger off" is one endearing phrase he utters throughout his movie career, if you haven't noticed.) Tara Fitzgerald appears as the romantic interest of Grant. The little game of seduction she plays makes your heart yearn once more for the high-school romances that once were sweet and whimsical. Colm Meaney is memorable as Morgan the Goat, the one magnetic personality who galvanises the village into action with his fiery ways and charms viewers with his cheeky ways.
This is not a Grant vehicle. His vehicle would be About a Boy. If anything, this is simply a vehicle for the Welsh fighting spirit which resides in the heart of every Welshman.
Who should stay away : Those who abhor spending Sundays at the picnic, those who can't stand Hugh Grant, and Welsh people, in the same vein as how Parisians stay away from Amelie.