Irish Romantic, Happily-Ever-After Movie for St. Patrick’s Day!

Gentle Irish film

Do you love Ireland? Farms and country life? And a shy romantic hero? I have the perfect St. Patrick Day movie for you!

Scanning our library’s DVD shelves one rainy day—our satellite internet is too slow for streaming—I came across Wild Mountain Thyme.

From the opening scene, I was a goner.

I fell head over heels for bumbling, quirky Anthony Reilly, headstrong, outspoken Rosemary Muldoon, and this gentle story of unrequited love and family feuds, set in the lush countryside of County Mayo.

Wild Mountain Thyme was mostly filmed near Crossmolina, with real pubs and a couple of working farms among the locations, and misty, far-off Mount Nephin overlooking gloriously greener-than-green pastures.

The film was sweet and funny, clever and tender in all the best ways…and never have I ever, in just a few weeks, watched a film four times.

As the romantic leads, Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan had great chemistry, two would-be lovers who were clearly meant for each other. 

Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan

I seriously wanted the movie to go on forever! However, if you’re into the usual rom-com plot lines and sexually-charged banter, you wouldn’t call this a romance. In fact…

“This is the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen.” —Bestselling Texas Romance Author

Maybe this is one of those movies where you either love it or hate it. While I adored Wild Mountain Thyme, I admit it had a few…issues.

For a story about two farmers, there’s not a whole lot of farming going on. Rosemary is running the family place by herself, but she has loads of free time to gallop around the countryside on her wild white stallion.

Anthony also seems to have tons of leisure, in which to float his little traditional “coracle” boat down the local stream. The farms were extremely sanitized too…lots of cows but not a speck of manure. But that’s movies for you.

Wee Irish boat for lazily floating down a stream

As Rosemary channels a little Maureen O’Hara’s mid-century feistiness, her country-chic, mismatched skirts and cardigans also makes you think the movie takes place in the 70s or something, 

I also had to shake my head when Anthony’s suave, New York cousin (Jon Hamm) comes to visit. Flying in from New York into the small Ireland West airport in rural Mayo, he drives up to the farm in a hired Rolls Royce! Out in the sticks, where on earth would he have rented a Rolls, I ask you?

Yet I couldn’t help loving every moment. When Jon Hamm’s character (who wants to buy Anthony’s farm) tells a pretty young Irishwoman he’s a farmer, she retorts, “No, you’re not.”

“How can you tell?” says he.

She gives him a long look. “You don’t look tired enough and your hands don’t look like feet.” Zing!

When Anthony’s comes to Rosemary’s house, soaking wet from the epic rainstorm, he pulls a filthy handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe off his face.

Rosemary advances on him with a pair of oversized kitchen tongs and snatches away his hanky—then throws a clean towel at his head so hard he almost falls over. Maureen O’ Hara couldn’t have done it better.

I was even spellbound through the longest, talkiest movie climax you could ever imagine…but film critics really gave the film a hard time.

Critics felt the film was too Darby O’Gill-ish—that any minute you could expect a leprechaun to pop in. And here’s where the Irish flair for a vivid turn of phrase comes in.

One called it “a steaming heap of celluloid cabbage,” and another said it was “overt paddywhackery on display.”

The critics’ biggest beef, however, were the actors’ Irish accents. Apparently not even Jamie Dornan’s accent was good enough—and he’s from Northern Ireland!

“Irish Accent Code Red Crisis”—Journalist Eavan Murray

But I think the people who gave it a bad rap had missed the point. The film’s themes—so very Irish, of loneliness, of depression, and the love of the land—had been treated with such tenderness and real emotion. So I think it was really meant to be a fable…a tribute to days gone by. 

“It’s a beautiful, eccentric, strange poem of a film.” —Emily Blunt

Even if Wild Mountain Thyme was “gentle, sweet, twinkly nonsense,” I’m sure once you watch this Irish happily-ever-after fairy tale, you’ll never forget it. 

Three more unforgettable Irish movies you’re sure to love, if you don’t already…

The Secret of Roan Inish, Brooklyn, and with Maureen O’Hara at her finest, The Quiet Man

For more Irish entertainment and culture, visit “Irish Fun” at www.susancolleenbrowne.com !