Wild Mountain Thyme is a 2020 romantic comedy-drama film about written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, based on his play Outside Mullingar.
The film stars Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Jon Hamm, Dearbhla Molloy and Christopher Walken.
Even the strong performances from Emily Blunt, Christopher Walken and the rest of the cast couldn’t rescue this movie from the mess John Patrick Shanley made of the script and the direction. It’s hard to believe he’s the same man who directed Moonstruck.
The script is adapted from Shanley’s stage play ‘Outside Mullingar’ but not very well. The movie has the stiff, clunky feel of a stage production.
I’m sure the content was meant to be whimsical and endearing but it missed the mark badly and ended up being insulting and saccharin. it stands in the same relationship to Ireland that the Disneyland Castle does to Neuschwanstein. The characters are decades-old stereotypes that are as inaccurate as the Irish accents of the cast.
Even with Blunt and Dornan acting their hearts out, the relationship of these two people who grew up on neighbouring farms but have never expressed their attraction to each other made no sense except as a form of mental illness.
The background music was intrusive and clichéd in many scenes, desperately trying to add tension and romance that the script failed to deliver.
Shanley’s confused and clichéd script and clunky, stiff direction
turned ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ from RomCom to NonCom.
Mike Finn's Fiction 