This is an enjoyable romantic comedy which even I, being a man, could watch without my toenails crinkling or my gonads shriveling up. The movie works perfectly as long as brassy big-city-girl Janeane Garofalo is confronted with an every-cliché-in-the-book village in the Irish boondocks. This concept stops working as soon as Janeane becomes all gooey gooey about that Irish heartthrob, which happens at about two thirds of the movie. At this point the script tries to tie up too many loose ends and performs a 180° turn towards a happy ending in which big city girl and Oirish oik find true love, the senatorial candiadate wins his election, and the hard-nosed spin doctor commits societal suicide. A bit too much cheese for my palate. Before that the movie was fresh and entertaining -- although it did pander to every cliché about the emerald isle in the book (the women all have luscious arse-length curly red hair, etc.).
Stuff I didn't like:
*Marcy (Janeane Garofalo) harping on about how she's addicted to fax machines and the New York Times at inappropriate moments. It just makes her seem self-important and boorish.
*The fact that autochtonic love interest Sean isn't just a simple Oirish country yokel but actually a cutting-edge investigative journalist who left the business because he was disgusted by the lack of ethics in the industry.
*When Marcy arrives at the hotel, she is told that there aren't any rooms available. No more rooms, huh, she asks back. Nope, none whatsoever, she is told. Then they ask around every hotel in the county. Finally the landlady concedes that they do, after all, have a room with en-suite bathroom and fecking bathtub available. Funny that she didn't think of that in the first place.
*That this -- for some dark reason -- was director Mark Joffe's last movie to date.
Stuff I did like:
*How Marcy, when she is being chatted up by Sean, lowers her voice and asks him intimately: "Is being an idiot like being high all the time?"
*The acting, especially of the secondary characters, is amazing. Check out matchmaker Milo O'Shea or the local "it's a filthy, FILTHY business" genealogist. Jay O'Sanders and Dennis Leary also make an amazing couple as the nit-witted senator and his ruthless adviser.
Stuff I didn't like:
*Marcy (Janeane Garofalo) harping on about how she's addicted to fax machines and the New York Times at inappropriate moments. It just makes her seem self-important and boorish.
*The fact that autochtonic love interest Sean isn't just a simple Oirish country yokel but actually a cutting-edge investigative journalist who left the business because he was disgusted by the lack of ethics in the industry.
*When Marcy arrives at the hotel, she is told that there aren't any rooms available. No more rooms, huh, she asks back. Nope, none whatsoever, she is told. Then they ask around every hotel in the county. Finally the landlady concedes that they do, after all, have a room with en-suite bathroom and fecking bathtub available. Funny that she didn't think of that in the first place.
*That this -- for some dark reason -- was director Mark Joffe's last movie to date.
Stuff I did like:
*How Marcy, when she is being chatted up by Sean, lowers her voice and asks him intimately: "Is being an idiot like being high all the time?"
*The acting, especially of the secondary characters, is amazing. Check out matchmaker Milo O'Shea or the local "it's a filthy, FILTHY business" genealogist. Jay O'Sanders and Dennis Leary also make an amazing couple as the nit-witted senator and his ruthless adviser.