7/4/2023 0 Comments Wild mountain thyme“Sure, why would a heathen man like Tony Reilly be kneeling in a church?” asks Emily Blunt’s character Rosemary in another damp squib of a dialogue driven-joke. In the end, Wild Mountain Thyme fails to make the most of its cast or fairytale story and feels slightly misbegotten.Emma Donnelly waves her shillelagh at the clouds. Amelia Warner’s score feels equally predictable as it deploys fiddle music that ranges from toe-tapping jauntiness to maudlin sentimentality. Mostly, Shanley favours brittle comic banter, singalong renditions of the title folk song and some lazy plotting leading up to a storm-tossed finale. There are some warm, touching scenes in a father/son bedside conversation when Tony falls ill and in some of the quieter, more thoughtful exchanges between Anthony and Rosemary. It is possible to swallow all this malarkey but there are hints of a deeper, more appealing film addressing the loneliness of rural life and the ache of those who feel that love may have passed them by. Cue the arrival of American cousin and perfunctory love rival Adam (Jon Hamm), a smooth, jet-set sophisticate whose hire car in Ireland is a Rolls Royce. Things take a turn for the decisive when Tony announces that he does not intend to bequeath his farm to Anthony. Dressed in bright reds and autumn shades, she is such a striking presence that you question why she has wasted her life waiting on Anthony. “ You can’t even love a dog.” Dornan makes a credible fist of depicting a cripplingly shy, tongue-tongued introvert but seems less comfortable with the broader comic demands of pratfalls and a practise session declaring his feelings to a donkey.Įmily Blunt’s unwavering professionalism also lends conviction to the pipe-smoking, bloody-minded Rosemary. There may be references to The Lion King here but it feels strangely out of time.Ĭhristopher Walken’s late Tony Reilly narrates the story of the long, troubled relationship between his bashful son Anthony (Jamie Dornan) and their neighbour Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt), a flame-haired lass who has waited a lifetime for the slightest sign of encouragement from the man she has adored since the age of ten.Īnthony is considered emotionally repressed and socially inept as we are constantly reminded by those around him. A remote farming community congregates around the church, a cemetery and a pub where you almost expect The Quiet Man’s Victor McLaglen to be ordering a pint. Filmed in County Mayo, it is set in a soggy rural Ireland of superstition and solitude. The much-derided accents are the least of the issues with Wild Mountain Thyme as whimsy and cliche overwhelm the more intriguing melancholy elements. The much derided accents are the least of the issues with Wild Mountain Thyme The star names should ensure home viewing traction in the wake of a US theatrical release on December 11. Incurable romantics will have to overlook toe-curling moments and errant Irish accents if they are to embrace the cosy, comfort blanket cockle-warming on offer here. Lightning doesn’t strike twice with Wild Mountain Thyme, an unabashed tearjerker adapted from Shanley’s 2014 Broadway play ’Outside Mullingar’. More than three decades have passed since John Patrick Shanley won the Oscar for his screenplay of bewitching love story Moonstruck.
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