Irish Wish review

Irish Wish complicates far too much. It’s the hyperactive strand of underwhelming rom coms. One that probably would have been much more entertaining just from simplifying its premise.

Sure, a rom com where the screenwriter — Kirsten Hansen — gets a little too ambitious should be commended. The cookie cutter nature of the genre can get stale sometimes no matter how many chocolate chips get sprinkled into the mix. Turns out Irish Wish is one of those rom coms that just needed the formulaic approach to work.

The film could thrive with an average script thanks to the effervescence of star Lindsay Lohan. Unlike most rom com leads, Lohan has a charismatic presence that gives her characters more life and personality. It never feels like she’s just parroting bad dialogue, which makes her characters come across more genuine. Even if the material is lackluster like Irish Wish.

This time, Lohan is playing Maddie, a book editor at the red carpet reading of Paul Kenendy’s (Alexander Vlahos) new novel. Vlahos kinda resembles Justin Timberlake with Kit Harington’s Game of Thrones hairdo. Maddie is crushing hard on Paul. She thinks she’s sent him all the signals, but he’s yet to make a move. Maybe the book reading will mark the perfect opportunity?

An ominous sign of trouble occurs when Maddie calls her mother, Rosemary (a poorly utilized, but game Jane Seymour). The book reading is in New York, clearly set at night. Bizarrely, Maddie talks to Rosemary in Des Moines, Iowa where not only is the sun still shining brightly — but Rosemary is still in her workday as a school principal. The time difference from New York to Des Moines? One hour.

This signals a few things. Director Janeen Damian, who last worked with Lohan on Falling for Christmas, isn’t worried about small details if it messes up a “fun scene.” And things just happen in Irish Wish regardless of if there was an easier way to accomplish it.

Maddie’s brought her two pals, Emma (Elizabeth Tan) and Heather (Ayesha Curry) to the book reading. For reasons solely dictated by the movie’s premise, Maddie hasn’t told her best friends about her crush on Paul. Instead, Maddie’s confided all this to her mother. That just doesn’t make any sense unless Hansen needed to conveniently work around friend logic for the sake of the movie.

One look at each other and Paul and Emma are instantly smitten. Maddie is silently seething, but it is kind of her fault for not sharing this valuable insight to her friends. Fast forward a few months and Paul and Emma are engaged. And Maddie is still quietly hating. The wedding is set at Paul’s family’s place in Ireland.

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Maddie gets separated from the rest of the bridal party after losing her luggage. At the airport she has what’s supposed to be a meet-cute with a photographer James (Ed Speleers, Star Trek: Picard). Their initial encounter and subsequent meeting on a shuttle don’t offer any reasons to think they’d be a good pairing.

Still smitten, Maddie makes a wish on the estate that she was marrying Paul. Small, increasingly annoying note — Maddie continually refers to Paul as Paul Kennedy instead of just by his first name. That’s not normal.

A curiously dressed woman, Brigid (Dawn Bradfield), offers to make Maddie’ wish come true. Next thing, Maddie wakes up to find it’s her, not Emma slated to marry Paul in a few days. Brigid’s wish fulfillment wasn’t totally on the up and up. She starts maneuvering James and Maddie into the same locations until he’s brought on as the wedding photographer.

Maddie’s monthslong crush on Paul is no match for the suave, charms of James. Again, Hansen’s script doesn’t do enough to paint James as this amazing, interesting catch. He’s just happens to be Maddie’s actual love interest as that’s what the script dictates. At least he’s a better tour guide than Paul showing Maddie a slew of gorgeous sights and views.

There’s way too much going on to make the story coherent. It seems like a slight tweak on My Best Friend’s Wedding would have worked easier than the whole altered reality gimmick.

Hansen starts taking some shortcuts in the final act to exclaim Paul isn’t right for Maddie by showcasing his flaws. The subtle bits like Emma loving to dance, ride bikes and having an appreciation of high-level fashion were enough. It felt like Hansen needed to vilify Paul to some degree simply to absolve Maddie of her selfish wish.

The ending is a puzzling mix of slapstick comedy and too many tears. Lohan can drag these mediocre Netflix romcoms to some measure of watchability, but it’d be better if she could get strong material.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Netflix