Waking Ned Devine
2/4
Starring: Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan, Susan Lynch, James Nesbitt
Rated PG for Nudity, Language and Thematic Elements
"Waking Ned Devine" is another one of the quirky, feel good dramedies that came from the British Iles around the turn of the millennium. Although it is arguably more famous than movies like "Billy Elliot," "Pride" and "Saving Grace," it's actually the weakest of them. Too much time is spent with the two-dimensional townsfolk rather than the much more interesting scam that is perpetrated by an entire town.
Jackie O'Shea (Bannen) is delighted to find out that the winner of the national lottery is residing in his small coastal town of Tullymore. Jackie, his wife Annie (Flanagan) and his best friend Michael O'Sullivan (Kelly) hold a dinner party to find out who he is in the hopes of getting some charity. But one person is missing: Ned Devine (Jimmy Keogh). Jackie and Annie put two and two together and realize that Ned has to be the winner. But he died from shock with the winning numbers in his hand. Ned doesn't have any family, so the winnings will go back in the national treasury. Jackie can't let that happen, so he enlists Michael to pose as Ned to get the cash. Soon they realize that telling a lie was the easy part. Keeping it a secret is another thing entirely.
"Waking Ned Devine" has a fatal flaw: it spends too much time with the people of Tullymore and not enough on the scam. To be sure, the film has its share of nice performances, but Jackie, Michael and the others are stick figures at best. The writing isn't able to support the dramatic weight that writer/director Kirk Jones intends to give them. As a result, we spend more time with their little half-baked melodramas rather than the lottery scam, which is much more interesting.
The film isn't as clever or funny as it thinks it is. Potentially uproarious sequences, such as Michael's naked motorcycle ride (the film's most infamous scene), don't pay off because of bad timing, but more often than not it's because Jones spends too much time on the drama. Sure, character moments and melodrama are important in this sort of movie, but a little of it goes a long way. The emphasis should be on the plot, but the scam is a background detail. The romance between the single mother Maggie O'Toole (Lynch) and Pig Finn (Nesbitt), the man she would marry if he didn't smell like pigs feels like padding. And the budding friendship between her son Maurice (Robert Hickey) and Father Patrick (Dermot Kerrigan) serves no purpose whatsoever.
"Waking Ned Devine" in many ways feels like a bait-and-switch. The gimmick is a cheery farce about how a small town scams the big city but instead we're forced to spend time with a bunch of people who don't mean anything to us. Talk about a missed opportunity.
Starring: Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan, Susan Lynch, James Nesbitt
Rated PG for Nudity, Language and Thematic Elements
"Waking Ned Devine" is another one of the quirky, feel good dramedies that came from the British Iles around the turn of the millennium. Although it is arguably more famous than movies like "Billy Elliot," "Pride" and "Saving Grace," it's actually the weakest of them. Too much time is spent with the two-dimensional townsfolk rather than the much more interesting scam that is perpetrated by an entire town.
Jackie O'Shea (Bannen) is delighted to find out that the winner of the national lottery is residing in his small coastal town of Tullymore. Jackie, his wife Annie (Flanagan) and his best friend Michael O'Sullivan (Kelly) hold a dinner party to find out who he is in the hopes of getting some charity. But one person is missing: Ned Devine (Jimmy Keogh). Jackie and Annie put two and two together and realize that Ned has to be the winner. But he died from shock with the winning numbers in his hand. Ned doesn't have any family, so the winnings will go back in the national treasury. Jackie can't let that happen, so he enlists Michael to pose as Ned to get the cash. Soon they realize that telling a lie was the easy part. Keeping it a secret is another thing entirely.
"Waking Ned Devine" has a fatal flaw: it spends too much time with the people of Tullymore and not enough on the scam. To be sure, the film has its share of nice performances, but Jackie, Michael and the others are stick figures at best. The writing isn't able to support the dramatic weight that writer/director Kirk Jones intends to give them. As a result, we spend more time with their little half-baked melodramas rather than the lottery scam, which is much more interesting.
The film isn't as clever or funny as it thinks it is. Potentially uproarious sequences, such as Michael's naked motorcycle ride (the film's most infamous scene), don't pay off because of bad timing, but more often than not it's because Jones spends too much time on the drama. Sure, character moments and melodrama are important in this sort of movie, but a little of it goes a long way. The emphasis should be on the plot, but the scam is a background detail. The romance between the single mother Maggie O'Toole (Lynch) and Pig Finn (Nesbitt), the man she would marry if he didn't smell like pigs feels like padding. And the budding friendship between her son Maurice (Robert Hickey) and Father Patrick (Dermot Kerrigan) serves no purpose whatsoever.
"Waking Ned Devine" in many ways feels like a bait-and-switch. The gimmick is a cheery farce about how a small town scams the big city but instead we're forced to spend time with a bunch of people who don't mean anything to us. Talk about a missed opportunity.
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