Spoilers herein.
Projects like this amaze me. It is not a matter so much of whether they succeed or not (this one does only partially), but where it chooses to place itself in our mind.
The `message' is that much in life --- specifically politics -- is a fabricated mythology -- a performance designed to trigger templates for selfish ends. We get manipulated but willingly because we are entertained and comforted. The politician here works to exploit his Irish family heritage precisely because of the hot buttons associated with those two ingredients: Ireland and family.
So then, what do we get? A film that is designed to trigger hot buttons of Ireland (lovely landscapes), love (an overly conventional boy-meets-girl story in the context of a mass of such stories) and family (two brothers spat and make up).
We know this project did not begin where it ends up. It ends up taking the manipulation seriously. Its just an ordinary date movie now. But it was not so at the beginning. We can see this because:
-- Janeane Garofalo is the reigning mistress of just this kind of irony. She often plays both sides of the fence: playing the lovely young love target and simultaneously looking straight at the viewer and saying `isn't this a bucket of stuff?' Her presence by itself is proof that before the thing ended in front of our eyes, something more intelligent was intended.
-- In conventional ironic form, the play contains a play within. Actually a film within a film. The politician comes to Ireland with a film crew (to do just what this film does) and is surprised to find things are different. The relationship of that `film' to this one was clearly intended to mirror the relationship of this film to `real' life.
-- More: the framing is by a self-aware video of the town's chief matchmaker. This common device was obviously designed to alert us to the parallel layer: on top of the film is the mechanics of film design where slots in our minds are being fitted with pretty things in Ireland: `Janeane: you send us lots of American viewers and we'll match them up (with pretty Irish things).'
-- No one is more tuned into just this type of irony than Van Morrison. See how his song is woven into the story? I'll bet the script idea started with that.
Projects like this amaze me. It is not a matter so much of whether they succeed or not (this one does only partially), but where it chooses to place itself in our mind.
The `message' is that much in life --- specifically politics -- is a fabricated mythology -- a performance designed to trigger templates for selfish ends. We get manipulated but willingly because we are entertained and comforted. The politician here works to exploit his Irish family heritage precisely because of the hot buttons associated with those two ingredients: Ireland and family.
So then, what do we get? A film that is designed to trigger hot buttons of Ireland (lovely landscapes), love (an overly conventional boy-meets-girl story in the context of a mass of such stories) and family (two brothers spat and make up).
We know this project did not begin where it ends up. It ends up taking the manipulation seriously. Its just an ordinary date movie now. But it was not so at the beginning. We can see this because:
-- Janeane Garofalo is the reigning mistress of just this kind of irony. She often plays both sides of the fence: playing the lovely young love target and simultaneously looking straight at the viewer and saying `isn't this a bucket of stuff?' Her presence by itself is proof that before the thing ended in front of our eyes, something more intelligent was intended.
-- In conventional ironic form, the play contains a play within. Actually a film within a film. The politician comes to Ireland with a film crew (to do just what this film does) and is surprised to find things are different. The relationship of that `film' to this one was clearly intended to mirror the relationship of this film to `real' life.
-- More: the framing is by a self-aware video of the town's chief matchmaker. This common device was obviously designed to alert us to the parallel layer: on top of the film is the mechanics of film design where slots in our minds are being fitted with pretty things in Ireland: `Janeane: you send us lots of American viewers and we'll match them up (with pretty Irish things).'
-- No one is more tuned into just this type of irony than Van Morrison. See how his song is woven into the story? I'll bet the script idea started with that.