| People that regularly
play Lotto know the feeling. I’m talking
about the one that you get when you wake up in
the morning, click on the radio and hear that a
winning ticket was purchased at your local
supermarket. Your heart skips a beat and, just
for an instant, you start imagining what
you’ll do with your millions. Then you get
out of bed, stub your toe and find out that the
winner was somebody else. That’s the basic
story behind Waking Ned Devine, a
delightful comic fable that finds a tiny Irish
town invigorated when its inhabitants band
together to cash in a winning lottery
ticket…after ripping it from the clenched
fists of its recently deceased owner.
The
main perpetrators are Jackie O’Shea (Ian
Bannen) and Michael O’Sullivan (David
Kelly), a rickety combo of codgers paired in the
tradition of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon
(Bannen even resembles Lemmon). They know someone
in Tullymore (population 52) has won the big
prize, but aren’t exactly sure whom.
Jackie
and Michael hatch a plan to invite the
town’s known lottery regulars to a chicken
dinner and then grill them for information, but
quickly learn nothing from their unsuspecting
guests. They do, however, notice that one invitee
hasn’t shown up. Hey,
"hatch"…"chicken"…I
just got that.
Upon
further investigation, the dynamic duo find the
owner of the unclaimed dinner (one Ned Devine)
laying in his bed with a million-dollar smile
spread across his lucky face as he clings on to
his ticket. The trouble is that the smile is
literally frozen on because Ned Devine is, in
fact, dead. Dead of a heart attack suffered at
the instant he learned of his upcoming riches.
Long
story short, Jackie and Michael convince the town
to help persuade the lottery officials into
believing that Ned Devine is still among the
living. If successful, the prize will be divided
equally among the residents of Tullymore.
Hilarity ensues. Big hilarity. The kind of
hilarity that would make it inadvisable to step
out for a wee pint before you see Waking Ned
Devine because you’ll probably wizz your
trousers if you do.
Likely
to draw comparisons to 1997’s crossover hit The
Full Monty, Waking Ned Devine is the
directorial and big-screen writing debut of Kirk
Jones, previously a successful commercial
director. Jones’ knack for precision timing
and comedic flair enables him to stretch his
simple premise into a sharp, concise film (and,
thankfully, not into The Matchmaker).
It’s the kind of movie where you don’t
fidget in your seat or look at your watch, but
rather the kind where you are halfway across the
parking lot before you realize that you’ve
had a smile on your face for the last ninety
minutes.
1:35
-  for brief nudity
and some mild adult language
|
