The Englishman Who Went up a Hill But Came Down A Mountain

Rating:
Summary: Delightful way to spend an evening
Review: We watched this movie and thought it was just delightful. It seems to me that its all about the characters and reflecting village life. Funny, clever, witty and charming we thought this was a great way to spend an evening.

Rating:
Summary: creepy and depressing
Review: While in the throes of stomach flu, I went down to the local video store and rented this dog, hoping it would be just the thing to take my mind off feeling like utter bollocks. The movie is billed as a comedy. It is not. There is absolutely nothing funny in the entire film. Hugh Grant and his surveyor boss stumble on the scene of a Welsh town that is so deeply backward that they take grave offense at the idea of the local mountain being classified as a hill. There is nothing funny about their primitive psychology; and indeed I felt increasingly uneasy as the animosity of the townspeople toward the English surveyors began to mount. I could not help but feel that the population was just a hair's breadth from murder at all times. Instead the good townspeople content themselves with permanently sabotaging the car of the surveyors. The upright fire and brimstone local vicar has a hand in the sabotage, saying "Forgive them God, for they know not what they do" as he slashes a tire. I find this utterly creepy. The vicar might as well be murdering the surveyors, offering the same schismatic formula. In the meantime, a local prostitute is brought in to ply Hugh Grant with her charms. Romantic, isn't it? Just as coyly funny as Johnny Shellshocked, the local war victim, becoming unglued on top of the mountain in a thunderstorm as he tries to assist in the chicanery of piling dirt on the mountaintop to augment its height. Can anyone doubt that with their innate hatred of the English these townspeople would seize upon and murder and perhaps even cannibalize the surveyors did they not countenance the mountain's new height? In some atavistic frenzy they would club them to death and drag their bodies through the streets. Good Fun!

Rating:
Summary: A great "feel good" movie
Review: Yes, it is a simple, uncomplicated story. Yes, they could have developed the relationship between Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald a little more. But despite its minor faults, this is one of my very favorite movies. It's a wonderful story that could easily have remained just a local legend, but I'm glad it didn't. I found the interactions between the Englishmen and the Welsh villagers hilarious, as well as the continuing sabotage of the Englishmens' attempts to leave the village. I thought the storyline about "Johnny shell-shocked" added just the right amount of depth without being overdone. And the end of the movie was quite satisfying, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'm just an old sap, but I enjoy this story. And I love that they show the actual mountain/hill at the end, along with the children of the people represented in the film. If you want to watch a movie that presents an engaging story without unnecessary embellishment, this is a good choice.