The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain 1995

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain is a film I haven't seen since it was released in 1995. I probably rented this one on VHS at the time from the local video store as I was tied down with a toddler and a preschooler in 1995. It's actually much better than I remembered!

It is the fictional story of a couple of cartographers who are mapping for the Ordnance Survey of Britain in 1917. The elder one is George Garrard  (Ian McNeice), a pompous old curmudgeon. The younger one is Reginald Anson (Hugh Grant) who is back from the trenches of France, slightly the worse for wear.

This unlikely duo stumble into a charming Welsh village with the task of mapping the hill in the town to see if it is above 1000 feet thereby qualifying as a mountain. The local claim to fame of the town is that it has the first mountain in Wales (across the English border) so there is a lot at stake when the map men come to town.

Tara Fitzgerald plays Betty, the local Welsh beauty whose job it is to keep young Reginald in town for a few extra days.

Colm Meaney plays the local pub owner and non believer Morgan the Goat, who apparently is responsible for the rash of ginger haired babies in the village.

Morgan constantly locks horns with the local Vicar, Reverend Jones played brilliantly by Kenneth Griffith, who you may recognize as the mad old man at the first wedding of Four Weddings and a Funeral. You remember;

Charles: How do you do, my name is Charles.

Old man: Don't be ridiculous, Charles died 20 years ago!

Charles: Must be a different Charles, I think.

Old man: Are you telling me I don't know my own brother?

Charles: No, no.

So if you are in the mood for a sweet film set in Wales in the early part of the last century, this is your film. It has a happy ending (I love happy endings) so this is a great one for these grey days waiting for spring to finally arrive. There are still flurries in Canada today, so this one was great to watch last weekend!

Cheers! Here's hoping spring has already arrived where you are.