Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Highly Overrated But Still Good

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain is a decent film. It is charming and features a wonderful cast. The story is interesting and quite entertaining. However, the premise would have served better for a short film rather than a feature film. Like many of Woody Allen's movies, the small plot is stretched to suit a film far too long for the idea. This film should have been 40 or so minutes long. Even 70 minutes would have been too long for this type of story. Even though it's a pretty short film in its own right, it was still too long for its story. Aside from that one flaw though, it was a quaint and enjoyable film with a heart and hilarious characters.

Christopher Monger's "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down A Mountain" is a gentle comedy about a pair of English cartographers (Hugh Grant and Ian McNeice) who travel to the tiny Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw in the year 1917. During their journey they reclassify a mountain as a hill, much to the chagrin of local Welsh folk, who immediately set about increasing the size of their hill so as to reclaim its mountainous status.The film was released the same year as "Braveheart", Mel Gibson's bloody hymn to ye olde Scotland. Monger's film is operating in a similar way, though its far more gentle, poking fun at all things English and exalting all things Welsh. Pitched at tourists, the film's designed to win you over with its lovable locals, quaint tone, funny customs and low key romance between an Englishman and Welsh rose.The film is supposedly based on a true story, or at least a local legend. Regardless, in Monger's hands the hill becomes a means of restoring both the Welsh community's war damaged self esteem within the film, and a means of bolstering Welsh patriotism outside the film. The National Assembly for Wales, which grants Wales the power to pass legislation without having to consult the UK parliament, was formed shortly after the film's release. Meanwhile, the cast's uncertainty as to what makes a hill and what makes a mountain (and when does one become the other?) is used as a means of cross-cultural bridge-building. You may look Welsh, may look English, but gee, you might as well be one of us.8/10 – Worth one viewing.

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain is directed by Christopher Monger and written by Ivor Monger. It stars Hugh Grant, Ian McNeice, Tara Fitzgerald, Colm Meaney and Kenneth Griffith. Music is by Stephen Endelman and cinematography by Vernon Layton.Set in 1917, plot finds Grant and McNeice as two English cartographers who arrive in the Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw to measure what the locals proudly proclaim to be Wales' first mountain. However, it turns out that the "mountain" is 16 feet below the required 1000 feet requisite so therefore can only be classed as a hill. This news causes disgust amongst the locals, who then set about stopping the cartographers going home whilst they attempt to build atop of the hill to make it over 1000 feet.A film with a big title that is matched by the size of its heart, Monger's film owes much to those fun community based pictures that filed out of Ealing Studios back in the 40s and 50s, Re: Whisky Galore! and The Titfield Thunderbolt. We can also safely place it the whimsy category where something as wonderful as Local Hero sits, while the old British comedy staple that encompasses an obsession with size (The Mouse That Roared) watches over the film like an approving British cinematic angel.Homespun humour marries up with the utterly engaging view of quirky village life to provide us with just under 100 minutes of entertainment. Although clearly simple in plot and structure, to simply dismiss it as such does not do justice to the fine work of the ensemble cast and the writing of Ivor and Chris Monger. With Grant doing what he does best, the amiable nervous fop, picture has a lead actor fully comfortable with the tone and texture of the production, while around him there are a number of fine character actors putting delightful meat on the comedy bones of oddball characters with names such as Morgan the Goat, Johny Shellshock, William the Petroleum and Betty from Cardiff! Best of the bunch is Griffith as Reverend Jones, a grumpy, stubborn eccentric who underpins everything so wonderfully skew-whiff about life in Ffynnon Garw.As for the writing? The screenplay has a wonderful ear for small village dialogue, while in amongst the value of community spirit theme, sits a near sombre observation of the effects of war on such a community. The production design is appealing, with Layton's photography around the Powys locations a visual treat, and Endelman's music has a suitably warming and jaunty feel; even if it starts to get a touch repetitive later in the piece. It doesn't have widespread appeal, it's clearly a film aimed at a small portion of film fans that love those films mentioned earlier. But in an era when film is being smothered by CGI and visual gimmickry, revisiting something like The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain offers up a most refreshing and diverting experience. 8/10

It's always a happy feeling to see this film among the listings. It is a gentle, feel-good story. What feels better than the wonder and admiration reflected in Hugh Grant's face when he first notices the villagers climbing FFynnon Garw with dirt to raise their mountain?! The characters are just that -- characters! Makes me laugh every time! And makes me feel a little misty every time, too! When Reginald Anson says he could live in a place like this, I get the same feeling -- living to a different pace, knowing all the people in the village, working together with a common purposeAnd don't nearly all films require the willing suspension of disbelief? Who cares that the setting is changed and there are omissions in the landscape, like a river and the channel? WIthout it's being pointed out, who'd have known?