Plunkett & Macleane

Plunkett & Macleane is set in eighteenth-century England, where two men from opposite ends of society meet in prison. Will Plunkett is a commoner who has turned to highway robbery, while James Macleane is a debt-ridden aristocrat. Once free, they form a partnership: Plunkett supplies the criminal experience, Macleane the manners and contacts that let them move among the wealthy they intend to rob. Their hold-ups make them notorious, but trouble arrives when Macleane falls for Lady Rebecca Gibson, whose uncle is a powerful judge, and a ruthless thief-taker pursuing the pair also has designs on her.

The film was directed by Jake Scott, his first feature, followed years later by Welcome to the Rileys and American Woman. Charles McKeown, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade wrote the screenplay, and the cast includes Jonny Lee Miller as Macleane, Robert Carlyle as Plunkett, Liv Tyler as Lady Rebecca, Ken Stott as Thief Taker General Chance, Michael Gambon as Lord Gibson and Alan Cumming as Lord Rochester. It was produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Rupert Harvey through Working Title Films, with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and the Arts Council of England.

Released in January 1999, the British production runs 93 minutes and mixes action, comedy and drama. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 4.6/10 from 29 reviews, noticeably lower than its audience score on TMDB, where 158 votes give it 6.2/10.