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THERE HAVE BEEN some truly grotesque attempts at Irish accents in Hollywood films over the years.
But a trailer for a new film that hit social media last night has made an admirable attempt at breaking records for how many bad Irish accents you can fit into two minutes and thirty seconds.
Wild Mountain Thyme, filmed in Co Mayo in Autumn 2019, is the latest film from John Patrick Shanley, an Oscar winner back in 1988 for his film Moonstruck.
And it has a star-studded cast with Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Jon Hamm and Christopher Walken.
As for the plot? Stop me if you heard this one before.
The blurb says: “An epic love story with soaring lyricism, Wild Mountain Thyme is set against the breath-taking landscapes of rural Ireland, where everyone is half mad with loneliness or love, and the weather is terrible.
Anthony and Rosemary are star-crossed lovers, whose families are caught up in a feud over a hotly contested patch of land that separates their two farms.
Anthony (Dornan) always seems to be out in the fields working, worn down by his father’s constant belittling. But what really stings is his father’s threat to bequeath the family farm to his American cousin Adam. Rosemary (Blunt) at first seems to hold a grudge for having been shamed by Anthony in childhood, but the sparks between them would keep a bonfire blazing through the night. Her mother Aoife strives to unite the families before it is too late.
“Just when we think Anthony will pluck up the courage to face up to his repressed feelings, cousin Adam (Hamm) steps in with a plan to sweep Rosemary off her feet, romancing her over a magical 24 hours in Manhattan. But true love is never defeated!”
There are a great many stereotypes around about the Irish, but “the sparks between them would keep a bonfire blazing through the night” is a new one.
Anyway.
It all sounds very dramatic but, to Irish ears, it’s hard to hear beyond the accents in the trailer.
As one caller to RTÉ’s Liveline today put it: “For an Irishman, Jamie Dornan has one of the worst Irish accents I’ve ever heard.”
There are so many aspects to pick apart in the trailer – much of it set to Will Ye Go, Lassie Go – but a personal favourite currently is hearing Christopher Walken say “you take after John Kelly and that man was as mad as the full moon”. A commonly-used phrase in “half mad rural Ireland”, of course.
The Irish embassy of the USA was prepared to give the accents a pass anyway.
Embassy of Ireland USA / Twitter
Embassy of Ireland USA / Twitter / Twitter
The story is adapted from the play Outside Mullingar by Shanley, which ran on Broadway in 2014 and received a Tony Award nomination for best play.
This kind of portrayal is aimed squarely at an American audience, it is due to be released in cinemas there and on demand on 11 December.
There’s no Irish release date as of yet but, after months and months of cinemas being closed this year, you’d have to give it a go when they open again?
It could even be good fun, even if the premise is a bit hackneyed at this stage:
An Irish Film #WildMountainThyme pic.twitter.com/hOLUjlyWxo
— Foil Arms and Hog (@FoilArmsAndHog) November 11, 2020
How could people Madagascar be unhappy !! They have lemurs singing ” I like to move it move it ” .
But they have the foosa! The scary, scary foosa
So why do the Danes have the highest consumption of anti depressants in the world ?
They’re the happiest anti-depressants in the world, though.
I know why they are unhappy…….how many symbols and drawings and such of Africa do you see without Madagascar? Enough to outdo the elation of singing lemurs
It’s not science, it’s Lego.
It’s not Lego it’s Carlsberg .
Probably is!!
Conversely, are they trying to say the further you get from Ireland the happier you get ?
We wouldn’t be happy there. It’s about 10 quid a pint.
Oh and Costa Rica top the world happiness index , now unless they have magically rowed the entire county from central America to Scandinavia , I’m calling Shanagains
Danes go in for equality, consensus , comprise, and discussions and debate always focus on what is best for society in general,
whereas Ireland, in my opinion is ruled by the elite for the elite.
plenty of countries like Spain have lower suicide rates than the Nordic countries, they aint all happy
It must be the genetic viking influence that makes me happy when the sun is shining.
Genetic Viking how much is that a pint
Highest taxes in the world and they’re still happy, well blow me.
I would be happy paying higher taxes if we could see that it improves our quality of life, instead of just paying for more of the same sub standard bulls#it.
€10 a beer and 57% income tax and still happy.
Is this is true Denmark my words Il be moving there
Ya beating helpless dolphins to death, sounds like a great place to live.
That will be addressed in the “Dolphin Happiness Index” article to be published shortly. I suppose you realise that the Faroe Islands are an autonomous province of Denmark, not actually part of the country and are self-governing ? No ? Well you do now. Not condoning what goes on, just putting the record straight.
Obviously true as LaFin-land is right beside it….I’m sorry!
Interesting, but their may be a simpler explanation , the Netherlands and Sweden are rich and well developed countries, Ghana and Madagascar are very poor. Now if a Viking gene is the answer, people in Northern Scotland and the Faro Islands should be just as happy, now I doubt if the are.
The entire “findings” of this Danish study are derived from the popularized idea that serotonin is the “happy chemical.” A lot of sound evidence shows that this notion is an assumption instead of a well established fact (see: http://www.supplements-and-health.com/tryptophan-side-effects.html ). The drug industry is behind the misleading promotion of the serotonin-as-the-feel-good-substance in order to sell their antidepressant drugs.
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