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Oh Hugh! We do love you, but you don’t always love us. At least not early in your career. And especially not your hair. Case in point — not one, but two supremely crappy historical costume movies where someone in the hair-styling department just couldn’t figure out WTFrock to do with Hugh Grant’s hair. Actually, the costumes aren’t that great either. Let’s face it, Hugh Grant before 1990 was pretty tragic in frock flicks, Maurice (1987) being the only exception because, y’know, Merchant Ivory.
For Snark Week, we’ll take a two-fer of Hugh Grant’s first historical failures…
Rowing With the Wind (1988) – Lord Byron
Tragic hair in a truly terrible movie. I’m something of a connoisseur of these awful retellings of the Byron / Shelley relationship, and I have to say the only good thing about this one is that it semi-accurately paints both poets as the self-involved assholes they probably were. But who wants to watch that, especially with hair this bad and costumes this weak? The women get occasionally OK outfits, but nothing stunning, and the locations aren’t much of a thrill either.
Hugh Grant’s hair starts out as what is probably his own basic 1980s hairstyle and then it gets longer and shaggier. You could say it’s byronic, but that would stretch the definition of the word beyond recognition.
The Lady and the Highwayman (1989) – Lord Lucius Vyne
This TV movie was based on a Barbara Cartland romance novel, and if that doesn’t scare you away, Hugh Grant’s mullet will. The women’s costumes are quite nice for 17th century (an era that can be easy to fuck up on screen), although everyone has 1980s makeup. Yet the women and all the men EXCEPT for Grant are wearing basically historical wigs. So the two options are that a) it’s Hugh Grant’s own hair (maybe an unfortunate trim after the last movie?), or b) Hugh Grant is wearing a mullet-wig (please do not tell me such things exist). There’s really no excuse.
Sigh Good costumes or bad, there is not escape from the crappy ’80s hair Hugh Grant displays in these frock flicks. Just gotta wait it out until Impromptu.
Are you a Hugh Grant fan? Are you still one after seeing these hair tragedies?
What about reviewing Champagne Charlie?
Now you’re just being mean! (and we like it ;-)
Do eeeeeeet. :-)
THIS LOOKS GLORIOUSLY BAD.
That would be a good one to do!
I just (accidentally?) saw that for the first time. Champagne Charlie makes The Lady and the Highwayman look like a great movie. It was soooo bad!
*bumping it up the list*
But Pauline’s gowns…
:-)
Seriously though, I’m planning on doing a crossplay of Pauline’s plum gown.
I watched (and recorded and kept for a couple of decades) THE LADY AND THE HIGHWAYMAN when it originally aired. That movie is the reason why I’ve never been able to take Hugh Grant seriously in any other movie he’s ever been in.
I saw Lady & the Highwayman on TV & liked it, but for some reason, I didn’t connect the that w/Hugh Grant until very recently. I have a selective memory for crap!
That plaid coat and hair shot looks straight from an Eighties music video!
Like, totally, right?
I still love Hugh. Even his mullet wig is cute. I keep remembering Maurice, Sense & Sensibility, and although it’s not a frock flick, Love Actually. He can run my country any day.
Four Weddings & a Funeral – best Hugh Grant non-costume movie IMNSHO :)
Too bad Lair of the White Worm (1988) wasn’t a costume piece. Talk about your really bad 80s/psychedelic movies! (with a young Peter Capaldi as well)
My friends & I watched White Worm on repeat in college… it was something of a party flick ;-)
Wow! We were wearing that hair style back in 70s…when I was in high school. Dated myself there… :-)
I just… don’t think he belongs in period movies. I have never liked him in one. Modern movies? Yes, fine, bring it on. But he seems to stand out as uncomfortably awkward to me in costume dramas.
White Worm! Yeah, that was a pip. Given when it was made, perhaps it now qualifies as a period piece? I still occasionally play the VHS tape.
Actually screamed at the The Lady and the Highwayman pictures. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Annnnd my work here is done!