Sometimes all the elements are on the page and still when all is said and done, a film just doesn’t work. Wild Mountain Thyme is, sadly, that movie.
Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Christopher Walken, Jon Hamm fill out an all-star cast. I mean, come on! And it’s based on a play whose playwright wrote and directed the stage to screen effort—John Patrick Shanley (who gifted the world Moonstruck). How could this film be a mess?
Yet here we are…
It even takes place on the most green and lush of Irish landscapes that find neighbors (Blunt and Dornan) who cannot find a love connection, despite fate and the entire world seemingly thinking they belong together. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why. Simply because they live next to one another and because they’ve been friends since there were young lads and lasses?
That is an enormous issue to overcome when it comes to a love story—regardless of the medium where the story lies.
One could argue that that enormity of expectations has kept these two from becoming a couple.
But what viewers are given never once leaves us to glean that a failure to “make the first move” by Rosemary (Blunt) or Anthony (Dornan) is why these two are still single. The truth of the matter is that we never sense any kind of chemistry that would have us cheering for a coupling.
That is one of the more enjoyable aspects of witnessing a romance in the theater. That collective pulling for these two individuals to get over what it is that stands in their way—it usually involves one or both of the people!—so that when they finally do kiss, a group cheer has been known on occasion to spontaneously erupt.
I miss that aspect of the cinema. That is why there is no doubt in this writer’s mind that when it is safe to return to gatherings again, audiences will flock to the movie theaters once again. There is nothing like it in the world.
Given that Wild Mountain Thyme’s romantic heartbeat is much like a hard-to-find pulse, having to premiere at home is probably best. Some may see the connection between Blunt and Dornan, but the addition of a third party—a potential love interest should the “main one” not connect—is introduced here by Shanley in the form of Hamm’s Adam. He is the American cousin of Dornan and the latter is none-too-happy with his cousin for another reason as well. His father Tony (Walken) has decided to sell the family farm to the Yank instead of his son, believing that his son’s lifelong interest in the family business has never amounted to much.
It might be easy to assume that Anthony doesn’t get excited about much. Strangely, that isn’t the case as frustration seems to be an emotion that Dornan is asked to portray often. The Fifty Shades of Grey star does his best with the material he’s given. Some blamed his lack of chemistry with Dakota Johnson in that romantic trilogy for one reason why critics lambasted the series. The mess that was that series was never his fault to bear. The same can be said for Wild Mountain Thyme. His character is underdefined and when someone as strong as Blunt’s Rosemary is who he’s playing opposite, it’s simple really to see how the lack of combustible spark failed to form.
Blunt inhabits such a strong, modern woman whose lot in life was always in question, and that largely had to do with the chap who lives next door. It doesn’t jive with how the British actress portrays Rose. Perhaps its her innate persona that Blunt brings to every character she tackles and with the lovelorn Irish lass, we just don’t buy it.
Walken is one of our favorite thespians and witnessing him in the Irish-set flick is a joy. His accent is fine—however it doesn’t match that of Dornan, who supposedly is his son. The actor has no trouble embracing the father character whose disappointment in his son is palpable. But the viewer might not find the congruency in the relationship due to the fact that Anthony is doing everything that is asked of him.
Hamm is wasted in the role. The Mad Men superstar has no problem playing dashing and whose handsome existence is supposed to light a spark under the arse of Anthony. The actor is convincing as someone Rosemary would find compelling, but if she was so madly in love with her neighbor, why does she consider grabbing her dream by the lapels and heading to Manhattan to see Adam?
Shanley is a fine storyteller. His writing credits go back decades and cross genres effortlessly. The Moonstruck writer also is the scribe behind Congo, Doubt and Joe Versus the Volcano. His foray into Irish romance is simply a swing and a miss. Perhaps there is something in the play that he determined would not work on the screen and in hindsight, it is the “X” factor that makes Wild Mountain Thyme click on the stage where it whiffs on the screen.
Grade: C-