What has happened to Hugh Grant?

I've just come back from watching Hugh Grant's latest film - "Have You Seen the Morgans". Hmmm.

It seemed like a harmless idea, go watch a rom-com lasting an acceptable hour and forty minutes. Plus I had been to see "Up In The Air" with George Clooney the day before, rather enjoyed it (despite Mr. Clooney's clear infatuation with himself) and so was suitably in the mood for another film. Bring it on. And besides: what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon in January, having the odd giggle, bit of popcorn.....?

Or - as Hugh Grant might say - so I thought.

It really is a shockingly bad film. I am not a fan of Sarah Jessica Parker, and I don't really understand her appeal. A beauty she ain't, and that's putting it mildly  - not to speak of her less than stellar acting abilities.  But Hugh Grant - really, really awful. Was I surprised? Well, no, and that's the truly shocking thing.

I confess to being a sucker for any film that Hugh Grant appears in, despite knowing that he has, over the years, done many truly, embarrassingly awful films. But Four Weddings and a Funeral, with its pre-PC wit, its whiff of the 1980s (a much maligned decade in my view) sits deep in my film consciousness, as do a few other great Hugh Grant moments and films. The pull is there, I buy the ticket and hope for the best.

Well, the film was terrible. Flat comic lines, poorly acted, dreadfully implausible plot.

And Grant himself: please... He really shouldn't subjet us to his inability to act in this very direct, no-holes barred manner. It's against the rules of polite film-watching - I mean, it's clear that he was never ever a really good actor, but he had his moments, his turns, albeit a limited repertoire. But to openly and at great length force even his fans to admit that he is so, so poor is, as I say, in bad taste. Leave us with our memories. Don't assist in dismantling your iconic status.

Will I go and see the next film Hugh Grant makes? Depressingly, the answer is yes. The pull of fond memories and the hope that the next one could just give us a touch of genius again....too great to resist.

Do you ever get hooked on someone, a film star, a musician, a writer, who wrote or sung or said something that so inspired you once, that you always go back to them, despite more than clear indications of waning talent? Woody Allen, maybe? Morrissey? Do tell.