Let me tell you about a bad movie. The Lady and the Highwayman stars, among others, Hugh Grant and tells the story of a noble hiding out as a bandit during the Commonwealth and early Restoration who then falls in love with his... well, she's some relation, a cousin, I think, after saving her from an evil puppy-kicking way-too-old-for-her husband. She then helps him try to reach the king, with whom he is friends, to restore his title and lands. The only thing that is not truly awful about this movie is, suprisingly, the plot. Sort of bodice-ripper-y/Robin Hood-y/period piece, which I do not particularly enjoy but which is not genearlly expected to lead to greatness anyway. The acting is bad. The dialogue is bad. The lighting is bad. The equestrianship is bad. The conversion to DVD is really bad.
I'd like to use different, more evocative, more precise adjectives, but, in this case, "bad" is the most whole and true.
The most puzzling feature of the whole production is Hugh Grant's pinched, nasal, wavering, helium-y voice. (Think Clayton from Benson.) He didn't sound like this in Maurice, did he? Is that his real voice? Surely not. Pip pip for the voice coach who fixed this problem for good. Alternately, off with the head of the voice coach who told him to talk like that in this film.
But really, what more can you expect from a DVD from the grocery store $5 bin?
