Why Hollywood gets the Irish so wrong
By John Maguire11th December 2020
Romantic comedy Wild Mountain Thyme s take on Irish life has been mocked ever since its trailer emerged last month. It s part of a long tradition of stereotyping, writes John Maguire.
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Like everyone else in Ireland, last month I watched the newly-launched trailer for Wild Mountain Thyme with my jaw on the floor as a parade of diddly-eye Irish clichés not seen since the dark days of Walt Disney’s 1959 leprechaun fantasy Darby O Gill and The Little People was crammed into two-and-a-half minutes. Like the diaspora of Irish people living all over the world, my toes curled as dollops of synthetic paddywhackery followed broad cultural stereotype followed borderline national insult. Like anyone who has ever visited Ireland on holiday, or met an Irish person, I rubbed my ears in disbelief as our melodious native accent was mangled beyond recognition once again by an actor playing Irish .
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Coming soon from director writer/director John Patrick Shanley and Bleeker Street comes the story of life and land in WILD MOUNTAIN THYME.
Tony (Christopher Walken) has lived his life on a beautiful plot of land in Ireland with his son Anthony (Jamie Dornan). In the land next to them is Aoife (Dearbhla Molloy) and daughter Rosemary (Emily Blunt) who keeps her heart out for Anthony.
When Anthony learns that his father might be selling the land to him, he is devastated. He also learns that nephew Adam (Jon Hamm) from America is coming for Tony s birthday and that is who is considered front runner for the land. There is also a piece of land between Tony and Aoife that belongs to Rosemary!