Later, he floats down the river in a pod-boat and falls in and then they all go to the pub to drink Guinness where Rosemary sings the titular song. Trying to work up the courage to propose, Anthony confesses his love to a donkey. Years later, when Rosemary (Blunt) and Anthony (Doran) are grown up and they both desperately want to marry each other, but do nothing about it for some reason. ![]() Her father then informs her that she’s actually a swan, which settles the issue and somehow becomes a theme through the story. The world is full of girls.” – proving once again that old white men can easily inhabit the deeply existential world of teenage girls and should never stop trying to. After a run in with her neighbour Anthony, a young Rosemary tells her father “I have no purpose. The story begins with the voiceover of Christopher Walken’s awkward brogue, introducing us to two farms, where the two neighbouring families get on well, but have some vague issue with gates. Absolutely none of which exist in Wild Mountain Thyme. ![]() One of the most striking films of the decade, Doubt showed a deep understanding of structure, tension, complex character development and visual storytelling. That masterful piece of writing earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He adapted and directed Doubt which featured none other than Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Moonstruck in 1988. Writer/director John Patrick Shanley has awards up the jacksy. This is somewhat surprising considering its author. The problems with Wild Mountain Thyme are extensive, and begin and end with the script. Hands up who has ever described an evening as being “as black as tar” in conversation? Do I have any former goths in the house? This annoying vernacular lacks any of the truth or charm of hiberno english, and is instead an inane cocktail of nonsensical, twee sayings, shakespearean-esque phrases and metaphors from angsty teenage poetry. Wild Mountain Thyme is wall-to-wall pretentious, theatrical dialogue. Wild Mountain Thyme, however, lacks the inane charm… or any actual jokes, and perhaps commits what is the most unforgivable sin of all: notions. Much in the same way as this film, that cheesy RomCom sold a prescribed notion of “Oirishness” back to the Americans – but did so with a modicum of humour and silliness. Playing a clumsy, love-struck American, Amy Adams spent days road tripping across this tiny Island in Leap Year. It was eleven years ago when another red-haired Hollywood A-lister starred in a cliched film featuring rolling green hills that could also easily double as an ad for Bord Failte. Why on earth set a story which is clearly based in a fictitious, whimsical version of historical Ireland in the modern day? Why would acting titans like Blunt, Jamie Doran, Jon Hamm and Christopher Walken sign on for this hot mess? Why wouldn’t John Patrick Shanley hire an accent coach? And why wouldn’t this director just run the script past at least one actual Irish person? ![]() Why, indeed? When it comes to Wild Mountain Thyme, “why” is the word of the hour. “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. Emma Donnelly waves her shillelagh at the clouds.
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