Wild Mountain Thyme (film)

Set in the countryside of County Westmeath, Ireland, it’s about two introverted misfits in their late 30s who have lived in adjacent farms their whole lives. Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt), is a beautiful, sharp-tongued farmer’s daughter in love with the bashful and boyish Anthony Reilly (Jamie Dornan) since childhood. He frustratingly fails to show interest.

Is a flashback to their childhood, Anthony is smelling a flower and gets some pollen on his nose. Rosemary is quietly watching him from a tree. Another little girl, Fiona, laughs at him for it so Rosemary pushes her in anger and he does the same, defending the first. Then, Anthony asks himself why nature “made him so”.

The Reillys have invited the now widow Aiofe Muldoon and her daughter Rosemary over after her husband Chris’ funeral. Anthony’s old farmer father Tony (Christopher Walken), tells him he won’t leave his farm to him, despite having dedicated his whole life to it. Tony’s reasoning for disinheriting him is that it is not likely his son will marry and continue his legacy. He’s considering selling instead to his American nephew Adam Reilly (Jon Hamm), who is in banking in NYC. Anthony, frustrated, goes out to find Rosemary. The first time we see her is here in the present day, smoking (her father’s) pipe in the rain.

Throughout the movie, a clearly smitten Rosemary confesses she has been in love with Anthony her whole life. The only logical option for these two is to be together. But, Anthony’s introversion and her fear of getting hurt, keep them side-by-side yet apart.

Anthony has also been thinking of her for a long while. He gets caught by a neighbor, practising a proposal to his donkey. Later that evening, he's at her gate with his mother’s wedding ring, but suddenly can’t find it. He gets a metal detector to search (he then spends months off and on looking for his mother’s wedding ring to propose).

At Tony’s 75th, the American cousin Adam (Jon Hamm) comes with his father. Insisting they have the party in the open air, but he’s also rented a Rolls Royce for the occasion. He soon starts hitting on Rosemary and is their opposite, direct and extroverted.

Later on, they rush Aoife to the hospital. There, Tony tells Adam he can’t sell him the farm as it would ruin Anthony and Rosemary chances to be together. Aoife passes, leaving Rosemary alone. Not long after, on Tony's death bed, he apologizes to Anthony for not having faith in him and almost selling the farm, and they say they love each other.

Both Rosemary and Anthony are living on their separate farms. Outside his place, she leaves him a bit of food, he again suggests she consider leaving and quit smoking (his father’s death was likely from his smoking).

Vetting her options, Rosemary flies to New York for one day with Adam to see NYC and watch ‘Swan lake’. Over dinner, he describes his view of marriage: it's a business proposal, to be happy, you must be realistic. He says Anthony ‘is not the marrying kind’ and suggests her dream of her and Anthony is making her miserable.

On Rosemary's return, she finds Anthony again on her property with the metal detector. Insisting he follow her home, she forces him to sit and face her. They bicker here and there, as there is great sexual tensión between them. He gets madly jealous when told Adam kissed her in New York. Adam has called Anthony to say he’s returning, presumably to propose. Whereas Anthony doesn’t think he himself is right for her as he believes he’s a honeybee, and she a flower (rosemary IS a flowering plant). When he tells Rosemary this, in her own mind, she’s considered herself a swan ever since her dad played her “Swan Lake,” and compared her to one (as in the Ugly Duckling fable).

When Rosemary shows Anthony the missing ring she'd found, he finally proposes. The film closes with the two happily singing together ‘Wild Mountain Thyme' in their local pub, with their deceased parents looking on..

• Emily Blunt as Rosemary Muldoon
  • Abigail Coburn as young Rosemary Muldoon
• Jamie Dornan as Anthony Reilly
  • Darragh O'Kane as young Anthony Reilly
• Jon Hamm as Adam Kelly
• Christopher Walken as Tony Reilly
• Dearbhla Molloy as Aoife Muldoon
• Danielle Ryan as Maeve
• Barry McGovern as Cleary
• Lydia McGuinness as Eleanor

It was announced in May 2019 that John Patrick Shanley would write and direct an adaptation of his play Outside Mullingar, starring Jamie Dornan and Holliday Grainger [4] By August, Emily Blunt, Jon Hamm, Christopher Walken and Dearbhla Molloy were added to the cast, with Blunt replacing Grainger in her role, and Molloy reprising her role from the play.[5]

Filming began in Crossmolina, County Mayo, Ireland on September 30, 2019.[6] It continued in Ballina, County Mayo and lasted over five weeks.[1] Mount Nephin was prominently displayed in the movie.

It was released in the United States on December 11, 2020.[7] The trailer was released on November 10, 2020,[8][9] and was criticized for its inaccurate Irish accents and rehashing of hackneyed stereotypes.[10][11][12] Shanley stated that no one would understand the characters if they sounded like his relatives spoke, and "you have to make the accent more accessible to a global audience".[1]

It was the eighth-most rented film on FandangoNow in its debut weekend.[13]

The film was only released on DVD on February 2, 2021[14] with no Blu-ray or 4K UHD format released.

The soundtrack album was released digitally in December 2020, featuring Amelia Warner's score and an original song by Sinéad O'Connor.[15]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 25% of 130 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Fatally undermined by dodgy accents and a questionable story, Wild Mountain Thyme is a baffling misfire for a talented filmmaker and impressive cast."[16] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17]

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "C–" and wrote: "Shanley, whose script for Moonstruck suggests that he once had a slightly tighter handle on this sort of thing, brings his play 'Outside Mullingar' to the screen like he's trying to fill every close-up with enough whimsical enchantment to reach the back row of a Broadway theater. The lethal intensity of this effect cannot be overstated; the only logical explanation for what happened here is that someone planted a bomb in Shanley’s editing bay and timed it to explode if any cut of Wild Mountain Thyme dipped below 50 kilohertz of cartoon Irish charm per minute."[18] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a positive review: "The gentle spirit of Wild Mountain Thyme envelops us early, to the extent that, midway through, even though there is very little left to resolve, we are in its spell."[19]

• Wild Mountain Thyme at IMDb