If dead squabbling rappers Biggie and Tupac had been a couple of frilly-cuffed dandies during the early 19th Century, this could well have been their story. But they werent, so its not. Instead, its the story of renowned English poets Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth, their blossoming friendship, attempts at collaboration, and eventual descent into handbags at high noon.
Taking us back to a time before people realised poetrys rubbish, director Julien Temple and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce present us with a stylistically messy account of this whining pairs love-hate relationship. Linus Roache appears to delight in playing Coleridge as a bizarre French Revolution equivalent of Keith Richards, all drug addiction and flailing arms. John Hannah, meanwhile, struggles with a dodgy Yorkshire(?) accent and over-sized sideburns, as he plagiarises his mates best work and brown-noses to the Government. At one point hes got a couple of real-life caterpillars on his face, but theyre by no means the only crawlers in this production.
By far the best bits of the film are where it attempts to be humourous – the jokes work surprisingly well, but the rest teeters permanently on the verge of pomposity. In comparison to the swell of other costume dramas to have come out of the UK over the years, its at least a bit different. Temples style behind the camera is very much his own (its not at all surprising to discover hes helmed several David Bowie videos), and hes certainly not afraid of dabbling with the unexpected when it comes to visuals. But does it really all have to come across as quite so smug?