Rob Roy

Rob Roy (1995), directed by Michael Caton-Jones

I'd blame it all on Daniel Day-Lewis. It was probably the success of Last of the Mohicans that led to the recent rash of romantic movies based on "classics" of English literature. Such is definitely the case with Rob Roy, which, as I see it, has precious little to do with Scotland and Sir Walter Scott, and everything to do with the American western. Rob Roy is just your standard Gary Cooper character who is wronged, and must defend his honor. Just stick it in kilts and add a naked Liam Neeson and you've got yourself a prefab hit (except that it wasn't a hit, at least in the U.S.).

I suppose we can count our blessigs: the locations and cinematography are beautiful and striking (note the scene where the Redcoats appear suddenly out of the mist), the accents are good, the costumes and sets are authentic, and there's no crappy Bryan Adams theme song (ala Prince of Thieves).

The best part of the film, as noted by nearly every critic, is Tim Roth's villain. Rather than just another "heavy" who chortles constantly about his villainy, Roth seems tired of life, and bored by everything he does: bored by sex, bored by money, bored by the violence which he so skillfully employs, and bored with being a hanger-on. He certainly deserved his Oscar nomination, and if it hadn't been for Kevin Spacey's several spectacular performances in 1995, I would award it to Roth. In the end, a great-looking picture with a cliched plot and sometimes embarrassingly bad dialogue (you wonder how Neeson and Jessica Lange kept a straight face sometimes with such hokey lines). Worth a look, if for nothing else, for Roth's fascinating performance, and the teriffic sword fight at the end.