This is an artifact from the early days of the pandemic, when a lot of people were staying home and those who could afford to were indulging their boredom. The entertainment industry was kind of at loose ends, and a lot of actors wanted to “pitch in” and make something that people could enjoy. Home Movie: The Princess Bride was an offering to come out of Quibi (we hardly knew ye.) Very simply, it was a bunch of actors reenacting parts from The Princess Bride, separately in their own homes, with the resulting footage edited together. It’s deliberately cheap and homemade-looking, and the roles are cast with multiple actors to allow as many people to get in on the action as possible.
Episode 3, as you can guess from the title, covers the Cliffs of Insanity scene. Vizzini, Inigo, and Fezzik have kidnapped Buttercup and are fleeing the pursuit of the Man in Black. He follows them up the cliffs, and Vizzini leaves Inigo to deal with the masked stranger if he reaches the top.
Each episode of the miniseries is 5-6 minutes long—that was Quibi for you!—but even in that time, we see some doubling up in the cast. At the start, we’re treated to an Office accountant reunion, with Angela Kinsey as Vizzini, Oscar Nuñez as Inigo, and Brian Baumgartner as Fezzik. Since Buttercup has no lines in this sequence, she’s mostly “played” by what appears to be one of Baumgartner’s kids as he pretends to climb.
The series is very clearly just a bunch of actors goofing around in their homes with homemade costumes and quick-and-convenient props, which is very much the point. It elicits memories of playing around as kids, making silly home movies that you take very seriously. There are some amusing touches, like using Lego models for “long shots.”
Diego Luna comes in during the second half of the very short episode. Nuñez heads off with the rest of the Office alum and Luna takes over as Inigo, playing against Jack Black’s Westley. (Side note: Black isn’t an actor who would ever get cast to play a character like Westley, but he is committed to this, and it’s kind of great.) Together, they handle Inigo’s impatient wait for Westley to reach the top of the cliffs and the story of the Six-Fingered Man.
Like Black, Luna plays things completely straight, despite the silliness of the proceedings—his stand-in for the six-fingered sword is an umbrella. He’s a little rougher than Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo, cranking up the gruffness in his voice and shifting in manner between conversational and aloof. Because of the scene he’s covering, he gets to be the first Inigo in the series to say that line
Not really too much else to say. It’s The Princess Bride, reenacted by celebrities who are bored at home. I think there might have been a charity involved. It’s pretty much just what you’d expect.
Recommend?
In General – We’ve definitely moved out of the period in which people were eager for this brand of DIY entertainment, so it’s not a must. But it’s cute—you might have fun with it.
Diego Luna – Why not? His episode is less than 6 minutes long, and it’s Diego Luna playing Inigo Montoya. What’s not to like?
Warnings
A bit of peril and some discussion of violence.
