It would be easy to knock Wild Mountain Thyme, as many have, it’s accents
are at best questionable and the ending, which has taken a life of its own
on social media, is, to put it kindly, rather strange. But in its defence I
don’t imagine that Oscar and Pulitzer winning writer director John Patrick
Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck) intended for Wild Mountain Thyme to be anything
more than a good old fashioned piece of escapist entertainment and if that
is the case then he’s most certainly succeeded.
Jamie Dornan, proving after Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar that he’s
as comfortable in a comic role as he is playing straight up drama, is
Anthony Reilly a day dreamer who has spent his entire life, along with his
father Tony (Christopher Walken), working on the family farm.
Meanwhile in the next door farm, along with her mother, stays Rosemary
Muldoon (Emily Blunt), a headstrong independent woman who has been in love
with Anthony since she was 10 years old.
Blind to Rosemary’s affection Anthony is crushed when his father tells him
that he’s a better day dreamer than a farmer and when he heads for pint of
Guinness in the great pub in the sky he’s going to leave the farm to
Anthony’s American cousin, Adam (Jon Hamm).
It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that when Adam turns up to make a claim
on his inheritance his head is turned by the beautiful Rosemary. Spurred on
by the competition poor Anthony is left to fumble about as he tries to find
a way to win the heart of his true love before she’s swept of her feet by
the dashing American.
Shanley paints a picture of Ireland that invokes the memory of John Ford’s
classic The Quiet Man, green fields and rain showers are plentiful, Blunt
even has the obligatory Irish red hair and looks not too dissimilar to
Maureen O’Hara in the aforementioned The Quiet Man.
Wild Mountain Thyme with its mix of Irish charm, and some, minus the
accents, wonderful performances is guaranteed to melt the hardest of
hearts.
If it’s a piece of rock solid entertainment you’re after then there’s worse
things that you could do than spent a couple of hours in the company of the
Muldoon’s and the Reilly’s.
Recommended
