Review: Wild Mountain Thyme

21 April 2021

A film about the selling of a farm after a loved one’s passing may not seem like the movie you needed to see; and you’d be right.

Jamie Dornan and Emily Blunt in Wild Mountain Thyme / Picture Credit: Lionsgate

The synopsis

Wild Mountain Thyme follows a small group of closely-connected Irish folk after the loss of a dear friend. Tony Reilly (Christopher Walken), owner of the farm they all know and love, soon decides to sell it to his American nephew Adam (Jon Hamm).

Both Tony’s son Antony (Jamie Dornan) and headstrong farmer Rosemary (Emily Blunt) are devastated, and try to convince the grieving man otherwise.

Rosemary has been besotted with Antony for years, but it seems their love is not on the cards. With the news of the farm being sold, the stress she has gone through losing a father and now her land is in jeopardy, it seems she may miss her chance to catch Antony’s attention.

From then on the plot is rather unclear to say the least. There are arguments and Rosemary feels a jolt of guilt for what she feels is betraying Antony. This is also stunted by a very odd and shocking turn of events towards the end of the movie, where Antony reveals his deepest secret to the headstrong farmer.

So, what did I think?

Usually when I review movies, I try to remain open minded, especially if it doesn’t seem like the type of film I would usually watch. So, I prepared myself to see the positives in this movie as the plot isn’t something I would generally go for.

Seeing the positives means to give a fair review and understand why others may like the film, even if I didn’t; unfortunately this was simply not possible with Wild Mountain Thyme.

Never before have I been so confused and honestly, bored by a movie.

The screenwriting was abysmal to say the least; many conversations between characters were so bizarre, not because of their topics but the way the characters went about them. For example, there is a scene in which young Rosemary and her father are discussing the fact that she is ‘The White Swan’, and she speaks in a very peculiar and un-childlike manner.

Furthermore, it is said in the synopsis for the movie that Rosemary is in love with Antony, who is oblivious to her admiration. In many films, the girl often waits for the guy to make the move, fair enough; but in this story Rosemary actually gets angry at him for not telling her she’s beautiful, even though it seems he’s had no idea she has fallen for him.

This revelation occurs during an argument the pair have towards the end of the movie; which was one of the most drawn-out and awkward scenes I’ve witnessed in a film.

Antony yells at Rosemary for kissing his cousin, even though he himself has shown no romantic interest in her whatsoever, not even now while he is seemingly jealous of his cousin’s affections for her.

While some films don’t adhere to real life rules to make the film more interesting, this exchange simply made no sense to me. What’s more, this argument reveals one of the oddest lines and random plot twists (if you could call it that) I’ve ever heard of.

Antony is reluctant to share his deepest secret with Rosemary, for fear she will no longer pine for him. As he tells her, he shouts at Rosemary, “I think I’m a Honey-Bee!” It seems for the whole film he hasn’t sought her, or any other woman out for a wife, due to the fact he thinks he’s an insect…

I simply could not fathom why this was included or what purpose it had within the movie, as it was simply the weirdest plot development I’ve come across, possibly ever.

Not only this, but this odd scene also brought about the fact that Rosemary states she has depression; as awful as this is, at no point in the movie was this evident. She seemed melancholic about her lust for Antony, but it seemed that this mental health issue was thrown in for the sake of adding something else to her character – which did not work.

In addition to this odd plotline, many people are angry and even outraged at the Irish accents put on by the actors. Many Irish audience members felt mocked and belittled, something Blunt and Dornan don't appear to be offended by.

The rest of the movie simply felt like a collection of videos stuck together, rather than a well-strung-out film. There was no sense of wonderment, intrigue, or questions such as ‘will they or won’t they?’ or ‘will the farm actually be sold’?

There is no connection to the land or the characters whatsoever, so much so that the ending fell very flat indeed.

There are only two positives I could extract from this ridiculous film; one would be the cast. With Blunt, Dornan, Hamm and Walken- this was a great roster of actors – which in turn made the movie all the more disappointing when it didn’t hit the mark.

In addition to this, the scenery was rather stunning and the family-feel that this small cast of characters seemed to bring to the screen was rather charming.

Unfortunately though, this did nothing to revive Wild Mountain Thyme from its early grave.

Wild Mountain Thyme will be available on digital in the UK on April 30th, 2021.

Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal

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