This is a whole lot more fun than expected. I mean, it’s fun enough for around the first half hour with Heath Ledger – I think between this and Brokeback Mountain in 2005 we have another acting masterclass to match Russell Crowe’s turns in 2000 in The Insider and Gladiator, I mean you couldn’t ask an actor to play more different roles more differently. But here Ledger is practically just icing on the cake once Jeremy Irons and “is that really?!?” Oliver Platt arrive. I’ve always thought Platt a brilliant actor, Simon Birch and Pieces of April most immediately come to mind … but I’ve never seen nor did I ever expect to see him as he is here, practically doing Timothy Spall better than Timothy Spall. It’s very funny, very fast-paced, and with a lot of interesting things to say about religion, censorship, and gender: in the latter’s case, importantly to me, never in ways that annoy. Definitely one I’ll watch again – and there aren’t many recent period movies I can say that of.