Word: granted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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British filmmakers are ever mindful of the glory days, nearly a half-century ago, when the Ealing Studios produced a smart series of social comedies. Two of Grant's new films aim for that mixture of nostalgia and satire. The Englishman ... is writer-director Christopher Monger's fable about a Welsh village whose denizens are determined that their local hill (elevation 300 m) be declared a mountain (elevation at least 305 m). Grant, as the English surveyor who is finally seduced by their cause, struts and tut-tuts through his part with authority, but all his patented exertions...
...troupe seem tired and tatty under their gaudy makeup. With baths a luxury, the locals can afford only to dream. That, at least, is the route taken by young Stella (Georgina Cates, in an affecting star debut), who joins the troupe and falls in love with its dashing director (Grant). For Stella he's just the wrong person: homosexual, vicious, smooth as snake oil. Grant here is wonderfully assured, residing inside this rotter as if he'd been waiting to play the role all his life. It's one of the good things to say about the actor...
...Hollywood wanted to make him a star, so he tries that in Nine Months, a big burly romp from director Chris Columbus (the Home Alone hits, Mrs. Doubtfire). Yet another high-concept comedy based on a French film, Nine Months tracks a child psychologist (Grant) and his dance-teacher lover (Julianne Moore, acute as always) from pregnancy through delivery of a baby the man isn't at all ready...
...side--for more general, genial comedy. The movie also gets unwontedly frantic toward the end, with slapstick brawls and auto injuries. (Note to Hollywood: Can you outlaw funny car crashes, starting right now?) But the film has a cleverness that is as irresistible as it is predictable, and Grant eventually looks comfortable in the main role he has to play here: movie star...
Onscreen and off, Grant's shtick is to stammer; words are land mines around which he stumbles nonchalantly. Even with a script, Grant has a rougher time getting through a sentence unharmed than anyone since Jimmy Stewart. And so, in his weeklong mass-media confession, it took a while for him to become sure of himself--sure, that is, of the Hugh Grant he was playing for the largest audience ever to see him (the night he appeared, the Tonight Show won its highest ratings since Leno's first month as permanent host...