A very messy and mucky highwayman pic that is fine once it establishes the tone and settles into the kind of thing we were expecting all along. Earlier on, however, the film's all over the place, a combo of Tom Jones and Carry On Dick, with touches of Hammer horror, pop songs on the soundtrack and a string of anachronisms. But once the partnership between wiry Robert Carlyle and elegant Jonny Lee Miller has been set, the story becomes more of a Bonnie and Clyde of the 18th century. Naturally, the pair are ultimately undone - not by the thieftaker-general (a role Ken Stott makes as malevolent as possible without reducing it to a caricature), but by the love of a woman. In this role, Liv Tyler, taller than both her leading men, affects a good English accent but otherwise acts poorly. Increasing bursts of action in the second half give the vigorous (and visceral) tale a boost that sustains it to the end. Some grisly bits at the start are not for the faint-hearted.