Movie Review by Nigel A Messenger
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Liv Tyler
Director: Jake Scott
Back in the bad old days, we’re talking highwaymen, horse drawn carriages, circa 1748, we find Plunkett (Robert Carlyle), a streetwise thief and Macleane (Jonny Lee Miller), a gentleman without money, thrown together in an effort to evade the law and rob the rich to survive.
‘Plunkett and Macleane’ is a sort of pop culture film translated back into 18th century England. Realism is the order of this picture, everybody is dirty, in the sense of unwashed, except for the society crowd who are perfectly dressed, with the men wearing fashionable wigs of the day and while never breaking society’s behavioural code, have virtually no morals.
Visually this movie portrays how things might have been, and the depiction of the English parliament and legal system at the time is done quite well.
The acting is also good especially from Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller as the likeable rogue heroes, Liv Tyler our heroine – Lady Rebecca and an amusing performance by Alan Cumming as the Earl of Rochester. Overall some of the nastier realism is a bit off putting but it’s a quite enjoyable, although not very complex movie.
