Apart from being poles apart in the musical vein, it also pays little attention to the purity of period language, though I got the distinct impression that this was as deliberate as the over-exaggeration in costume and, especially, coiffure.

Plunkett and Macleane was filmed in England and, if I read the credits correctly, Prague. I guess that city still boasts some of the grandiose architecture that marked London of the period. Or at least boasts such grandiose architecture that may be opened to the exploitation of a major film production. And lucky we are for that privilege.

The film tells the true story of a brace of rogues who earned a reputation in the 18th Century as the Gentlemen Highwaymen. Will Plunkett (Carlyle) is a hardened and experienced criminal, eventually caught and cast into jail where he strikes up a gentleman's agreement with Capt James Macleane (Miller). The combination of Plunkett's criminal prowess and Macleane's social connections net the pair the aforementioned reputation and a lucrative haul. The former meaning more to the good captain than the booty.

Capt Macleane, although down on his luck at the start of the movie, interacts well with the London social set, especially with the fairer sex, thus gathering the requisite intelligence to advance the pair's fortune. And as a team they work well together and enjoy their work. As the poster says, they rob from the rich ... and that's it.

Liv Tyler plays Macleane's love interest, a sumptuous apparition, niece to the pair's first victim. As fussy as she is beautiful, she falls for that which she cannot have -- the gentleman behind the mask. Although she engages with great skill in a favoured gentile pastime, pistol shooting, she, disappointingly, does not join the bandit pair in their exploits, as the movie's poster might suggest.

I highly recommend this movie for overall entertainment value, especially if you are as big a fan as I of Robert Carlyle.

As an aside, Plunkett was an apothecary before he turned to a life of crime. The word apothecary was a new one on me when I heard it in Shakespeare in Love and I've heard it used three or four time since. Do you think it is flavour of the month or did I have selective hearing?

Another aside. If fashion comes and goes, I can't wait for the uplifting return of the tight bodice!