
Lindsay Lohan recently made her return to the screen with the Netflix film ‘Falling for Christmas.’ The actress steals the show with her charm throughout the film Now, for her new film ‘Irish Wish,’ Lohan teams up with director Janeen Damian in a slightly fantasy-infused screwball romantic comedy.
In the film, Lohan portrays Maddie Kelly an editor who is said to be in love with her romance novelist husband-to-be, Paul Kennedy (Played by Alexander Vlahos). Although Kennedy has a very charming Irish face, he seems to lead a dull life. This secret stays only within her family as she has never shared it with anyone else including her mother, Rosemary (this time played by Jane Seymour) who is a high school principal in Iowa. The big turnout event is the release of the book in which Maddie has pledged to open up about her feelings for Paul and her best friends as well. A chance encounter leads Paul and Maddie’s best friend Emma (Elizabeth Tan) together, but she seems disenchanted by Paul’s awful behavior. Without warning, three months pass, and the entire team is flown to Ireland for a wedding at Paul’s estate.
Maddie finds herself caught up in a comical sequence of events after yielding to curiosity and mistaking the suitcase of rogue English photographer James (Ed Speleers) as her own.
Once the misunderstandings have been settled, they catch a bus to the airport into the country where a few more of their verbal exchanges are teased. At this point, neither of them can stand the other. After settling in at the estate, Maddie is out for a walk and sits on a stone-wearing chair where the mischievous Saint Brigid, played by Dawn Bradfield, invites her to dress up her wishes. “I wish I were marrying Paul Kennedy” she declares as a windstorm lifts fairytale pink blossoms around her and pulls her headlong into a violent merge with destiny.
There are a lot of negative sides when the wish comes true including the so-called blessing where she is however a bride. What is worth noting is that it looks very early that she and Paul will never be a match made in heaven. The more their interaction goes on, the more annoying Paddy’s wit becomes. But as insecurities start to rush in, Maddie spends her hours with sexy and smart James who happens to be her wedding photographer making plans for the wedding that is about to take place.
Maddie is informed by a priest that Saint Brigid is not like Saint Mick and Saint Keith who give you what you want but rather what you need when she learns that her wish has made everyone’s life miserable and that she may actually love James. In this specific case, Saint Brigid created a work-life muddle that may not be what one seeks but is still helpful in one way or another.
Although the structure and plotting engage the viewers quite none, best of all was the mere presence of Lohan on set. She is a leading star and has always performed fabulously as a Torrid Comedienne War character even when subpar material is present (yes, “Just My Luck”, I am referring to you!). Damian tends to frame her quite a bit in the middle third of the image with warm tones that are complimentary instead of overly distracting. Maddie’s chemistry with Speleers is palpable allowing the two to infuse their small talk with a bit of sizzle and turning their romantic encounters, like a game of darts in a pub in a distant village, into something quite hot. With regard to the physical comedy, her fall down is well-timed and comical, sometimes the cuts between the star and her performer stand have less smoothness than one would wish for.
And why not, the scenery of the Irish countryside is stunning.
The peaceful sites like the serene Lough Tay as well as the dramatic Cliffs Of Moher brings tears to the eyes of the viewers who are taken into a surreal world of green hills and fairies who still exist and where love still conquers all. To top it all is the Irish-ness of it all supported by Nathan Lanier’s score that has Celtic touches which can be bad at times but charming in the end.
The film’s main faults are all around its supporting cast. Vlahos is perfect as the dumb Paul; I thought he sounded quite like the “Liberty Biberty” car insurance commercials, and I mean this in a positive way. However, Seymour is mostly underused in the mother character. She does not get to have a single scene with Lohan other than a FaceTime call her comic timing is simply much too broad and out of place. Jacinta Mulcahy doesn’t do much better as Paul’s mother Olivia who seems like a caricature of privilege on screen.
Tans’ character Emma as Paul’s wife in an alternate universe where Paul is married to someone else made for some great moments; however, their romance in any universe isn’t developed enough for the stakes that the plot presents.
Maddie Harris is friends with another character in Room 104; Heather, played by Ayesha Curry, who is better known as a chef at being a chef than she is at acting, but who hasn’t yet really been able to get both together in any of her lines.
While it has its shortcomings, no harm and a lot of good can be said of “Irish Wish,” as I suppose that’s how romance novels are for authors like Maddie just for editing, because it doesn’t take any effort to read or any effort, at all, to remember it. It would be delightful to see Lohan’s star in something she deserves – a hefty budget rom-com like Anyone But You, but if she’s happy working with Damian, in a low-budget Netflix flack that takes years to produce, then she deserves it after years of ram media.
For More Movies visit Like Irish Wish (2024) on 123Movies