Kirk Jones
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Connections, in both directions
The grand pleasure of Waking Ned Devine, a snappy, sunny Irish comedy from writer-director Kirk Jones set in a wee hamlet temperamentally related to the population of Local Hero and the blithe 1949 comedy Tight Little Island, is that the aging community at the center of the hilarity behaves with dignity or at least dignity as defined in Glocca Morra.
"Waking Ned Devine" is a good-hearted, slightly subversive movie in the tradition of "Local Hero."
This English newcomer evokes the spirit of Forsyth's early-period, British movies with "Waking Ned Devine," a low-key comedy that takes the quirkiness of Forsyth's "Local Hero" and melds it with the cheekiness (forgive the pun) of "The Full Monty."
"Waking Ned Devine" can take its place alongside " Local Hero ," " Comfort and Joy ," " The Snapper ," " The Van ," " The Full Monty ," "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain," " Brassed Off ," "Eat the Peach" and many others.
Love Actually (2003)
Directed by Richard Curtis
influenced What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)
Plot Themes
Based on Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel’s notably plot-free pregnancy manual of the same name, WTEWYE follows the template of all the other ensemble rom-coms released in Love Actually ‘s wake (and what a consistently disappointing output it has wrought): a bunch of tangentially related characters, played by stars you like, pair up in various pleasing combinations.
The film's title is also the name of a best-selling book, which has become something of a bible for first-time mothers, and while it's credited as forming the basis of the film, it feels more like an excuse to do a pregnancy-themed Love Actually.
It may seem a cynical take on the subject, but every subsequent dip into the “Love Actually” well over the past decade has only seen decreasing charms in return, save perhaps for last month’s surprisingly sharp “Think Like a Man.”
Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)”—the film is mostly an excuse to do a pregnancy-themed Love Actually , an overblown symphony of birthing stories that reaches its crescendo in the maternity ward.
It’s not a bad idea, it’s just been done to death and in most of those cases the resulting films have been less than stellar (Love Actually is one of the few exceptions to that rule).
"Love Actually" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love." are good examples where the end result succeeds despite those aforementioned structural issues.
Wedding 2 if anything, is marginally better than the original, if only because it’s less indebted to Cher’s Moonstruck (1987) and because you don’t have to wonder about the budding romantic relationship between Vardalos and John Corbett, him with the longish, misted-looking hair.
Calvary devilishly satirizes all those charming Irish comedies of the 1990s (Waking Ned Devine, a prime example) that feature a rogue’s gallery of eccentric village characters pulling good-hearted tricks and romantic schemes, and where the parish priest is invariably a benign presence.
While watching Leap Year, I swear I could hear the Irish countryside quietly weeping as it witnessed Goode and Adams slog through the film's succession of trite misadventures, the talented actors straining in vain to manufacture some semblance of romantic chemistry as an assortment of jolly Waking Ned Devine types futilely spurred them on.
Accordingly, she stands out from the other actresses - such as Susan Lynch ("Beautiful Creatures," "Waking Ned Devine") and Katrin Cartlidge ("Breaking the Waves," "Career Girls") - who embody similar characters.
Others that leap to mind include "Election," "Waking Ned Devine," and "Best in Show."
The same goes for Stellan Skarsgard (2004's " Exorcist: The Beginning ") and Colin Firth (2005's " Nanny McPhee ") as affable possible fathers Bill and Harry, though Firth does do a nice, low-key job with "Our Last Summer," over which he bonds with Sophie.
"Nanny McPhee" is full of the type of whimsical British morbidity that finds Cedric working in a mortuary with two gay assistants (Derek Jacobi, "Gladiator," "Gosford Park" and Patrick Barlow, "Bridget Jones's Diary") tending to old dead men with very gnarly feet.
Firth, the romantic-comedy stalwart of "Bridget Jones's Diary," "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "Love Actually," is just one of many talented names to grace a picture that doesn't deserve them (his bumbling is one of the film's saving graces).
I must confess to being mostly immune to the charms of “Tully,” basically “Nanny McPhee” as filtered through the foul-mouthed whimsy of Diablo Cody.
Overall, Waking Ned Devine focuses on the townspeople and, in particular, Jackie; Michael; Jackie's wife, Annie (Fionnula Flanagan, last seen in Some Mother's Son or the TV series "To Have and to Hold"); and a pair of would-be lovers, Finn the pig farmer (James Nesbitt, of Welcome to Sarajevo ) and Maggie (Susan Lynch, the selkie in The Secret of Roan Inish ).
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
Directed by Tom Six
influenced My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
Themes
Their sense of personal space is somewhere along the lines of "The Human Centipede."
Weathering the unknown frenzy at the pace of the editing by The Shape of Water’s Sidney Wolinsky and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’s Mark Czyzewski is precisely the aim.
World War Z (2013)
Directed by Marc Forster
influenced by What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)
Though ostensibly adapted from Brooks’ immensely popular novel, the Brad Pitt-helmed World War Z is as much a faithful adaptation of the book as 2012’s What to Expect When You’re Expecting was of the ubiquitous baby-brewing tour guide with which it shared a title.
Grown Ups 2 (2013)
Directed by Dennis Dugan
influenced by What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)
Chris Rock (2012's " What to Expect When You're Expecting ") and David Spade (2011's " Jack and Jill ") are happily along for the ride, though Spade gets a nice moment or two with son Braden and Rock is involved in the film's funniest scene involving a hasty cable visit and his attempt to avoid seeing Deanne's overly critical mother, Mama Ronzoni (Ebony Jo-Ann).
And veteran Irish character actor David Kelly is Grandpa Joe. Kelly has enjoyed a long and fruitful career, with recent international screen roles in films like Waking Ned Devine and The Matchmaker, but he may be best-known as the infamous Mr. O'Reilly from John Cleese's Fawlty Towers.
The first to find a ticket is gluttonous Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz); hes followed by spoiled Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), champion gum chewer Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb), video-game addict (in the book hes addicted to TV) Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), and Charlie, who brings along his "grandpa Joe" (Waking Ned Devines David Kelly).
He's accompanied by the spriteful David Kelly, from "Waking Ned Devine" fame, and his movie parents, Helena Bonham Carter and Noah Taylor, who help create a happy, Dickens' like home.
A gift of rejected caps enables Charlie to complete his mini-model of Wonka's factory and provides a jumping off point for Grandpa Joe's (David Kelly, "Waking Ned Devine") recollections of working for Willie back in the golden age before he locked the front gates.