[ad_1]\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that time of year again when predominately American moviemakers decide to inflict Paddywackery on viewers disguised as a rom-com. Netflix’s Irish Wish is the St Patrick\u2019s Day equivalent of Hallmark Christmas movies.<\/p>\n
As an Irish person, I am clearly not the target market. These films are so obviously made for a US audience that it is a wonder they even release them this side of the Atlantic \u2013 however, I am probably best placed to review it.<\/p>\n
This is Lindsay Lohan\u2019s second collaboration with Netflix and sees her co-star opposite Picard\u2019s Ed Speleers and Versailles’ Alexander Vlahos as the objects of her affection.<\/p>\n
She plays Maddie Kelly, the editor of charismatic Irish author Paul Kennedy (Vlahos), who is responsible for his success having basically written his book for him.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Lohan’s character wants to write her own novel, but is happy to wait in the wings as she is desperately in love with him. This was the first part of this film that made me cringe as Paul is a truly awful narcissist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
His shortcomings aside, Paul falls for one of Maddie’s best friends Emma (Elizabeth Tan). Fast forward a few months and the gang head to Ireland for the couple\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
En route, Lohan’s lead has a meet-cute with wildlife photographer James Thomas (Speleers). We later learn he\u2019s in the Emerald Isle to cover a sheep shearing contest. Because of course an international wildlife photographer, who shoots endangered species, would be covering the kind of thing that usually only makes the local paper.<\/p>\n
There is clearly a spark between the pair, but Maddie is still so hung up on Paul she can\u2019t see it. Instead, she makes [an Irish] wish while sitting on St Brigid\u2019s seat that she was marrying the author instead of Emma.<\/p>\n
Cue the fifth-century Saint (Dawn Bradfield) appearing to her dressed in a bizarre green Asian Fusion outfit resembling the Vietnamese Ao Dai. I\u2019ve no idea why a fifth-century Irish saint would be channelling Aisa, but hey \u2013 this is a fantasy right?<\/p>\n
Of course, her wish is granted but with just two days to the wedding (also \u2013 note to Americans \u2013 a priest CANNOT officiate a wedding in an outside space \u2013 they can only marry people in church!) she keeps finding herself thrown into Jack\u2019s path. The pair visit the cliffs of Moher and have a moment in a bar when they get stuck in a village overnight and lo and behold she is questioning what she really wants from life.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yes, the (basic) plot is standard rom-com fare \u2013 but the Paddywhackery! On a scale of Darby O\u2019Gill to Wild Mountain Thyme this is a Leap Year. I can\u2019t even articulate how twee Irish Wish is (no really, I checked the thesaurus and there is no word for it).<\/p>\n
I recognised many of the filming locations and while Westport (one of the main spots) is exactly as pretty as it looks in the film (seriously \u2013 it is gorgeous) it is portrayed as some sort of backwater when in fact it is one of the busiest tourist towns in the country.<\/p>\n
The film also captures the Cliffs of Moher in all their glory, filmed at an angle to ensure that they didn\u2019t catch the thousands of daily tourists and the general busyness of the area. By the time they reached this point, the movie was dragging so much that I was hoping the characters would take a selfie at the edge of the cliff and fall to a watery death so we could get to the credits.<\/p>\n
Also, while Vlahos is a very fine actor, he is Welsh. While his accent isn\u2019t the worst Irish accent I have ever heard on screen (it’s actually decent) there are hundreds of handsome Irish actors out there who could have played that role. On the plus side, neither Lohan or Speleers attempt the accent (thank heavens for small mercies).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Even the addition of former Bond girl Jane Seymour, who plays Maddie\u2019s mother, can\u2019t save this. She and Lindsay have no physical scenes together and merely chat on the phone. The character is totally redundant other than performing some \u201cwhacky\u201d comedy. Seymour is an icon and far better than this, but I found myself screaming \u201cWhy?\u201d at the screen.<\/p>\n
Irish Wish is an unoriginal idea (rom-com 101) that is incredibly poorly executed and while Lohan is likeable in the lead and there is some fabulous cinematography, the film really gave me the ick.<\/p>\n
While I don\u2019t want to spoil the ending for anyone, it is ludicrous (even for a rom-com). Maddie\u2019s book plans \u2013 give me strength!<\/p>\n
As a writer and an Irish person, I found this film awful and offensive on so many levels, so it only gets one star from me, even though Ireland looks gorgeous throughout.<\/p>\n
Irish Wish hits Netflix on Friday March 15. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] It\u2019s that time of year again when predominately American moviemakers decide to inflict Paddywackery on viewers disguised as a rom-com. Netflix’s Irish Wish is the St Patrick\u2019s Day equivalent of Hallmark Christmas movies. As an Irish person, I am clearly not the target market. These films are so obviously made for a US audience …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[765],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}