In the afterglow of Trainspotting, both Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller found themselves as hot property. Not as burning as Ewan McGregor, who was roped into a trilogy of Star Wars prequels, but explosive enough to star in a buddied-up robbery piece. Plunkett & Macleane is an expected blur of all the romantic, action-driven comedies of this late 1990s period, but that does not make it any less fun to endure. There are moments scattered throughout this Highway robbery piece that elicit the charms Carlyle and Miller deployed on their skag and booze-induced rise under Danny Boyle, it is moving that on to the next level that director Jake Scott (son of Ridley Scott), tries to provide.
Shockingly few highwaymen features have made it to the big screen, despite a love of British schooling systems teaching everyone about Dick Turpin. That latter, famed individual is absent from this, but the atmosphere and carnage that came from the plague of robbers and rebellion are right there. Scott’s direction is absolutely gorgeous. There is no way out of those muddy graveyards and the little reflections that bring out the atmospheric qualities. Dingy prisons, are grand in their scale and stocked well with prisoners that have some former connection to the leading pair that audiences never see. Waste flung from windows, a prisoner talking of death as “going in style,” all the qualities of a great period collection are right there, and they struggle to match the pace and tone.
Whether Plunkett & Macleane wants to be a wild comedy with Matt Lucas cameos or a dark and dingy crime caper with Carlisle presented in beautiful shots of disgrace is the real problem here. Its gothic atmosphere is plundered and destroyed by those aforementioned cameos, the great scope that Scott brings to a clumsy procession of themes means that Plunkett & Macleane never finds its footing. Miller and Carlyle have solid chemistry with one another, to be expected, but much of it relies on immediate turns of fate and rejections turning into an acceptance just moments later. Plunkett & Macleane is horrendously clumsy, the accents are poor and the excess on screen is maddening. But much of the charm comes from all of that, and Scott’s desire to power through all of that is admirable and makes for an interesting watch.
Plunkett & Macleane may as well be a revisionist Trainspotting. Miller sticks the conniving, doughy-eyed attitude on while Carlyle is the hardman with the short fuse. As the pair try and discuss morals and mortality, they are guided through by a constant, underlying soundtrack that never gives this pair, or the likes of Liv Tyler and Michael Gambon for that matter, much time to breathe. A shame that it comes to that, but Plunkett & Macleane is far away from enjoying the finer joys of the fantasy-like medieval period because of how much depth it sacrifices to make its encounters and scenes look beautiful. Certain elements are worth sticking around for, to witness some considered mockery of the expected periodicals. All of it is boozy, slick and uncoordinated fun that relies on a duo whose stories are never really told.
