
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 13, 1995                   TAG: 9505150061
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`ENGLISHMAN' IS EVERYTHING FILMGOERS EXPECT

First, you must understand that in Wales, there are so few last names that people require additional designations, usually based on what they make or do. As in, "Edward the Eggs" or "Williams the Petroleum" and "Evans Bread".

And then you have "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain," a very long name for a shy, affable cartographer named Reginald Anson who went to a tiny Welsh village called Ffynnon Garw to measure the local "mountain" for which the town is named.

And discovered the mountain was, in fact, a hill.

And never left.

Based on what is allegedly a true story or a tall tale (who cares?), "The Englishman" - starring Hugh Grant as Anson - is written and directed by Christopher Monger, who was raised in Wales. It is obvious from Frame One that Monger has never quite fallen out of love with Wales or the Welsh, and that is a good thing for movie audiences.

Aside from its sheer beauty as a film (cinematography by Vernon Layton), "The Englishman" is everything that filmgoers have come to expect from movies that come from the British Isles. It's tiny in scope, it's well-written - especially the characterizations - and it lovingly pokes fun at English class-consciousness and "other"-consciousness.

The story is simple: Anson and his boss George Garrad (the delightfully overwhelmed Ian McNeice) discover that Ffynnon Garw falls about 20 feet short of being a true mountain and must be left off the map. Pub/inn owner Morgan the Goat (Colm Meaney) and the Reverend Jones (Kenneth Griffith) - with ample help from the outraged locals - conspire to keep the English in town long enough so that the 20 feet can be added and the "hill" can be remeasured.

Meaney and Griffith are both wonderful as cohorts with nothing in common, and Grant as the slightly shell-shocked World War I veteran-turned cartographer is perfect as the nervous bearer of bad news.

Add to that a whole cast of colorful characters with exceptionally silly names and you have a movie that makes a mountain out of a molehill - and has fun doing it.

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

***

A Miramax/Parallax release showing at the Grandin Theatre and Salem Valley 8. 98 mins. Rated PG.

by CNB