TV review: Horses, wagons, baddies and wild west scenery — but no chemistry in The English
The English on BBC Two: has a superb cast including Ciarán Hinds, Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer
Clint Eastwood’s 1992 movie, , changed my mind about westerns. Up until then, a western was something that made my father talk about going to the cinema in Kinsale during the 1940s. The baddies were cartoonish and there was too much footage of cattle running through the scrub. And then came along with an amazing cast, three-dimensional characters, genuine chemistry between the actors, and a bit of a laugh along the way.
I thought The English (BBC TWO, Thursday) might pull off the same trick, and refresh the western for a new generation. It doesn’t.
Emily Blunt is a better actor than her character in this, Lady Cornelia Locke. She is the engine of the plot, arriving in the US west during the 1890s to avenge the death of her young son, ending up in a hotel in the middle of nowhere, run by a character played by Ciarán Hinds. She is shocked to find he has a native American from the Pawnee people, Eli, tied up and beaten up, outside his hotel. For reasons not yet clear Hinds’ character plans to kill this guy and Lady Cornelia as well.
He makes Cornelia wear a red dress and have dinner with him. It’s supposed to be creepy, but I didn’t feel a thing. There was no chemistry, good or bad, between the two of them. It was a relief when Eli appears, killing the bad guy and rescuing the good lady.
There are promising themes here: the plight of the Native Americans as wave after wave of Europeans arrived to plunder their land; the hard choices when it’s 'kill or be killed' in the wild west.
But there isn’t enough plot or character to knit these together. I blame the scenery. The big skies and angry rock formations are obviously irresistible for a cinematographer in a western, and this is no exception. A scene where Lady Cornelia drives her wagon towards Eli on his horse, in silhouette against the giant sky, seemed to take ages. It also seemed like something out of a bad romcom with art-house pretensions.
I’m two episodes in, and there is still no chemistry between the two of them. This is because Eli, played by Chaske Spencer, has completely over-cooked the strong and silent type, and is basically like a rock on horseback with an interesting take on the mohawk. I get this is supposed to go beyond the will-they-won’t-they cliché you find in most westerns, but honestly, I don’t care what they do.
The action is leisurely, with too many wide shots of angry-looking rocks. Cornelia and Eli are heading, very slowly, toward the baddie, played by Rafe Spall. We know he’s a baddie because we see him playing cricket, in the wild west. He’s in a town where the local sheriff is played by Stephen Rea, sporting an enthusiastic Irish accent.
has a superb cast, just like . But the similarity ends there. It doesn’t work as a romance, a western, or a new take on the plight of Native Americans. I’d prefer to watch .
