On hopes that there was a national strike of Irish Accent Coaches during the production of “Wild Mountain Thyme,” a new romance starring Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan and now on premium digital and on-demand. It’s the only explanation why a movie, set in Ireland’s County Mayo and starring an actual Irish movie star—Dornan was born in Belfast, about 200 kilometres from where the movie takes place—could feature some of the un-ear-friendly Irish accents this side of St. Patrick’s Day party at your local Applebee’s.
Blunt plays the headstrong Rosemary Muldoon, a farmer who has been in love with the eccentric Anthony (Jamie Dornan) since they were kids. Their family farms are side-by-side, and all is harmonious, except for one thing. Rosemary’s family owns a thin ribbon of land between the road and Anthony’s farm. Every time he goes in or out, he has to unlatch and latch two sets of gates. It’s a little thing, but it’s the small stuff that grates.
Anthony’s father, Tony Reilly (Christopher Walken)—who blows a story point in his opening, “Welcome to Ireland. My name’s Tony Reilly. I’m dead,” narration—is considering selling the farm to his American money-manager nephew Adam (Jon Hamm). Not only does Anthony not want dear old dad to sell the farm but he’d also prefer Adam to keep his eyes, and hands, off Rosemary.
“Wild Mountain Thyme” is a kind-hearted movie about love will finding its way no matter how long and twisty the road. Unfortunately, a kind heart doesn’t mean it’s a good movie. I love a good misfit love story as much as the next guy but director John Patrick Shanley spends so much time creating a quirky atmosphere for his characters to inhabit, he misses the chance to make us really care about them.
Blunt, Dornan and Walken are all engaging actors and make the most of the material, but they’re stymied by a story in search of a dash of magic to make it work. And not even Dornan can make proposing to a donkey seem authentic.
Then there’s the accents. Irish accents worldwide should take out a restraining order on Walken. No question. Blunt fairs better, but only by a diphthong.
Accents aside, the movie works best in an extended two-handed scene between the leads. Shanley based the screenplay on his 2014 Broadway play “Outside Mullingar,” and a long exchange between Rosemary and Anthony as they play cat and mouse over a half bottle of Guinness, reveals the film’s theatrical roots. It’s not cinematic, but it bristles with energy and humour and emits the passion the rest of the movie lacks.
Unfortunately, it leads up to one of the most wackadoodle twists in rom com history. It’s so odd, you may forget Walken’s massacre of the accent.
“Wild Mountain Thyme” has wonderful messages about acceptance and the love of rural life—and photography that must surely have the Irish Tourist Board’s Stamp of Approval—but it is undone by its own blarney.
Richard speaks to “CTV News at 11:30” anchor Andria Case about movies on VOD and in theatres to watch this weekend including the family friendly “The War with Grandpa,” the hilarious “The Forty Year Old Version” on Netflix and “Percy,” the farming drama starring Christopher Walken.
Richard and CP24 anchor Cristina Tenaglia have a look at the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including a pair of kid’s flicks “The War with Grandpa” and “100% Wolf,” the touching dramas “Percy” and “Yellow Rose” and the hilarious “The Forty-Year-Old Version.”
Richard sits in on the CTV NewsChannel with host Jennifer Burke to have a look at the new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including a pair of kid’s flicks “The War with Grandpa” and “100% Wolf,” the touching dramas “Percy” and “Yellow Rose” and the hilarious “The Forty-Year-Old Version.”
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including kid’s flicks “The War with Grandpa” and “100% Wolf,” the touching dramas “Percy” and “Yellow Rose” and the hilarious “The Forty-Year-Old Version.”
“Percy,” a new based-on-real-life drama from director Clark Johnson now playing in select theatres, is a David and Goliath story with a universal message of standing up for what you believe in. Christopher Walken plays septuagenarian Percy Schmeiser, a small-town farmer from Bruno, Saskatchewan, who refuses to be bullied by a giant agrochemical corporation.
Schmeiser and his family have been canola farmers for generations. His cash crop is planted the old-fashioned way, with “the most virile seeds” saved from previous harvests. That’s why it is a shock to be accused by agrochemical Goliath Monsanto Canada of illegally growing their patented canola seed without a license.
“There’s got to be a mistake,” Schmeiser says. “I got my own seeds.”
Determined to prove his innocence, Schmeiser hires a lawyer he can’t afford, Jackson Weaver (Zach Braff), and vows to fight back. When Monsanto legally outguns Weaver, threatening to bury the lawyer under piles of motions, along comes agricultural activist Rebecca Salcau (Christina Ricci) with a way forward. “what you are doing is heroic,” she tells him. “You should be recognized.”
“Percy” is the story of not bowing down to corporate greed. A restrained Walken leaves behind his trademarked vocal tics to bring the principled Percy to life, and Johnson keeps the focus on him. There are courtroom scenes and some legalese but this isn’t “A Few Good Men on a Farm.” It’s about a man struggling to maintain his family farm in the face of an agricultural revolution, a very real and hot button topic across North America and the world. As Percy reluctantly becomes a spokesman for the cause screenwriters Garfield Lindsay Miller and Hilary Pryor find authentic and humanistic ways to illustrate the plight of farmers like the title character. “Farmers know the land. They know their plants,” Percy says. “Monsanto knows winning and losing and profits.”
It is a classic underdog story, one designed to make your blood boil at the disregard corporations have for the little guy.
“Percy” isn’t a flashy movie, although the landscape shots of Saskatchewan’s open skies and fields are often breathtaking. Instead it’s a low-key story of the fight to maintain the integrity of the food we put in our mouths.
Depending on which way you look at “The War with Grandpa,” a new family comedy starring Robert De Niro and now playing in theatres, it’s either about a child trying to assert some kind of control in his life or a gruesome exposé of elder abuse.
Based on the children’s book of the same name by Robert Kimmel Smith, “The War with Grandpa” is far more family-friendly than “Dirty Grandpa,” De Niro’s other ancestral comedy. The Oscar winning actor plays Ed, an old codger who gets arrested after causing a scene at the self check out at his local grocery store.
Widowed and out of step with the times—he can’t figure out how to swipe on an iPhone—his daughter Sally (Uma Thurman) decides it’s time he moved in with her family, husband Arthur (Rob Riggle) their two daughters and son Peter (Oakes Fegley). Trouble is, there’s no room. Grandpa can’t handle the stairs to the basement apartment. Ditto the attic loft so Peter is forced to give up his room and he’s not happy about it. The youngster declares war, pulling a series of escalating pranks on his grandfather designed to force him out of the room. Trouble is, grandpa fights back. “We’re in the middle of a turf war over a bedroom,” Ed says.
“The War with Grandpa” is part “Home Alone,” part “Jackass” but with an old guy. The warfare consists of slapstick gags mixed with the story’s easy sentimentality—Peter says, “I love you grandpa… but the war is still on.”—and adult diaper jokes. In other words, it is exactly what you imagine it will be.
De Niro does a riff on his tough guy persona, tempered with age and humour, that the film hopes will inevitably become endearing. That there are no surprises will be comforting to some happy to see old school stars like De Niro, Thurman, Cheech Marin, Christopher Walken (whose collective careers don’t exactly scream family entertainment unless you are the Addams Family) and Jane Seymour have some juvenile, if forgettable, good fun on screen. Just don’t expect anything you haven’t seen before, except, perhaps the tacked on anti-war message near the end.
“The War with Grandpa” is a harmless family film but the movie lover in me couldn’t help but cringe just a bit watching “The Deer Hunter” co-stars De Niro and Walken return to battle against a bunch of tweens.
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including “Emma,” a period piece with a modern sensibility, “Seberg,” a by-the-book retelling of the defining time of movie actress Jean Seberg’s career, the memory mysteries of “Disappearance at Clifton Hill” and the “Big Lebowski” spin-off “The Jesus Rolls.”
Richard sits in on the CJAD Montreal morning show with host Andrew Carter to talk about the weekend’s biggest releases including the upper crust shenanigans of “Emma,” the real life drama of “Seberg,” the “Big Lebowski” spin-off “The Jesus Rolls” and the thriller “Disappearance at Clifton Hill.”
On hopes that there was a national strike of Irish Accent Coaches during the production of “Wild Mountain Thyme,” a new romance starring Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan and now on premium digital and on-demand. It’s the only explanation why a movie, set in Ireland’s County Mayo and starring an actual Irish movie star—Dornan was born in Belfast, about 200 kilometres from where the movie takes place—could feature some of the un-ear-friendly Irish accents this side of St. Patrick’s Day party at your local Applebee’s.
