This Week In Non-House Hugh Laurie: The Man In The Iron Mask

It's quite the coincidence that the Oscars were on last night, because today's clip comes from a movie that didn't even come close to winning one. The Man In The Iron Mask was quite the turd. I'm not sure if director Randall Wallace was going for anything artistically satisfying, but take a look at this montage featuring Laurie as the King's Advisor and see if you can tell what's wrong with this picture.



Can someone tell me why it is that a story based on a French novel about the French monarchy doesn't really seem to feature any French people? The obvious target here is DiCaprio, who seems about as regal as King Ralph. But it's not like anyone else is making much of an effort either, including Mr. Laurie. He can do a hell of an American accent, but I guess French was beyond his grasp.

Now I realize that MITIM isn't the only movie guilty of giving up on making everyone's accent sound authentic. I doubt that ancient Romans, for example, sounded anything like Russell Crowe. But you'll notice that the accents in Gladiator at least seemed to stay consistent within each nationality. In MITIM, however, you have what seems to be an American King of France being consulted by an Englishmen, with an American, a Brit, an Irishman, and just one Frenchman as the highlighted members of his royal guard. I hope Alexander Dumas enjoyed his swift kick to the nuts.