Wild Mountain Thyme – A Low-Energy Irish Romance

Award winning writer-director John Patrick Shanley has experienced success when it comes to romantic stories in the form of Moonstruck, winning an Academy Award for its screenplay. He also has history with adapting his own dramatic plays into strong films with Doubt, gaining another Oscar nomination for the screenplay. So with the news that Shanley is making his first film since Doubt in 2008 by adapting his play Outside Mullingar, there’s plenty of reason for excitement. Unfortunately, Wild Mountain Thyme (which takes its name from an Irish folk song of the same name that features heavily throughout the film) is a baffling mess that is sure to leave many viewers highly disappointed.

Anthony Reilly and Rosemary Muldoon (Dornan and Blunt) have lived on neighboring farms in Ireland since they were small children. Rosemary has been in love with Anthony since those days, but Anthony has never been able to properly reciprocate those feelings, despite it being apparent that he has the same feelings. Fast forward about 25 years, Rosemary still lives with her mother Aoife (Dearbhla Molloy) and Anthony still lives with his father Tony (Christopher Walken). When Tony decides to sell the farm to Anthony’s American cousin Adam (Hamm), rather than leaving it to Anthony, familial conflict and romantic uncertainty arise.

Wild Mountain Thyme saw Dornan and Blunt gives decent enough performances on their own. Dornan plays emotionally stunted decently enough. Blunt is adequate at capturing Rosemary’s depressingly besotted mood as well. Molloy is wonderfully wry in her small role. By contrast, Walken typically feels like he’s sleepwalking through his role. And Hamm just feels like he’s along for the ride. But at least he’s still the ever charming rogue you think of when his name is mentioned. Unfortunately, then there’s the rather glaring issue of the accent choices in the film. Dornan and Molloy are fine because they’re authentically Northern Irish and Irish respectively. Blunt may be English, but her accent is a little awkward, albeit not distractingly so. Where the accents fail is with Christopher Walken. The issue is not just that his attempt at an Irish accent is so bad. It’s also that he barely tries for an accent most of the time. He typically just sounds like Christopher Walken with the occasional word tinged with a bit of brogue.

While the cast provides mixed quality work, they are let down by a largely poor screenplay. The biggest problem arises when Dornan and Blunt are put together as a romantic pairing despite having no chemistry at all. Anthony may be emotionally stunted and Rosemary may be overly forlorn, but they just do not work together on screen. Additionally, Wild Mountain Thyme tries to set up a love triangle between Anthony, Rosemary, and Adam. But Adam’s short screen time renders much of the drama that might arise from such a conflict to be bereft of emotional impact.

Then there’s a secret reveal from Anthony in the final ten minutes that is thoroughly nonsensical. Meanwhile, there are are a couple of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it attempts to set up the twist thematically in act one. However, they don’t really add up to anything and the attempt at an explanation for its meaning is absurd and inane. The film also tries to parallel Anthony’s issue with similar imagery for Rosemary. It’s equally silly, but at least its only the childish security blanket idea of a woman desperate to win the love of her childhood crush, rather than something truly delusional. And while this cast could have potentially elevated Wild Mountain Thyme beyond its middling roots, the lack of chemistry between its leads, the mediocrity of the romance, and the ridiculous twist combine to hinder any good outcomes.

Wild Mountain Thyme has the sort of pedigree that could have yielded something great. John Patrick Shanley adapting his own play into a romance drama set in the Irish countryside. The scenery is quite lovely to see, but it’s the Irish countryside. Unless you take an active effort to make it bleak or unappealing, of course it’s going to be gorgeous. Outside of that natural beauty, the script is a mess. The lead romantic couple do not work well opposite each other. The drama is tedious and lacks any strength. And the twist at the end comes out of nowhere and is utterly bewildering.

In the end, just skip this farce and go watch Moonstruck and Doubt again.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Guest Writer