Thursday, June 18, 2009

No One Asked For It, But Here Is My Review of Rob Roy Starring Liam Neeson

There are a few movies that, should they be on TV, I will drop whatever I’m doing and watch them, even if they’re half way through. The Fugitive is one such movie. So is Contact with Jodie Foster. But Rob Roy pretty much takes the cake. The misty Scottish Highlands form the backdrop to this period piece in which mincing aristocrats (one of which is deliciously played by Tim Roth) attempt to cheat joyful peasants and ensnare them in a destructive cycle of debt-repayment. Eeeeeeeer (that’s the sound of a record scratching). No more dancing around in your dirty frock – your thatch roof is being burned! The main theme here is honor: what it is, and what one man will do, against all odds, to maintain it. This man is played by the craggy faced Liam Neeson. Here’s how you tell when someone is serious: when they disembowel a rotting moose carcass in order to hide inside it from their captors. Something else I like about this movie is that Jessica Lange, who plays Rob Roy’s wife, doesn’t appear to be wearing make-up. In other words, when she’s supposed to look bedraggled, she actually looks bedraggled, and not like a peasant woman in an Irish Spring commercial. So there you have it. If you find yourself at your parents house and this movie comes on in the middle of the day, do yourself a favor and grab a toaster strudel, sit down, and enjoy the show.