The other night I decided to watch Wild Mountain Thyme (2020). I should say, I decided to try and watch it again. A previous attempt didn’t make it much past the opening credits. I happened to read the synopsis and decided, nah. But after doing some research for my Far and Away post last week I saw that this movie hit the number one spot on a list of bad Irish accents. Which I thought was a little harsh since the lead actor is, in fact, Irish. I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself though. Let me back up to the beginning.

Of late, I am becoming a little bit of an Emily Blunt fan. So, I figured why not watch this movie? I have sat through some clunkers and more sleepers than hits, surely I could watch this movie and find some little spark in it? Nope. Here is the big [SPOILER ALERT] if this is on any of your lists STOP READING NOW. The guy thinks he is a bee. Not necessarily a deal breaker with me but the movie starts off so slow that I turned it off. I don’t do that a lot so that says something. I turned it off and went on my merry way.

Then I went to Ireland.

Still wasn’t going to attempt a rewatch. In fact, I had pretty much forgotten about it.

Then, as it happens, I was trying to find an old interview Tom Cruise did when Far and Away came out and stumbled on a list of movies with the worst Irish accents. I figured Tom and Nicole would be on it for their movie – which they were. But the number one movie surprised me. It was Wild Mountain Thyme. The lead actor is Jamie Dornan from Northern Ireland. So, the list intrigued me a little bit. I mean, I can kind of understand. The few times a character from Wyoming is portrayed I don’t recognize the affected drawl. The Wyoming accent is often portrayed as a southern drawl so people outside my state are a little surprised when I don’t have one in real life. I wondered if Dornan’s Irish accent pan was something similar to that?

So, I watched the movie. Sort of. It still is a slow moving movie so I couldn’t really focus. I worked on other projects while it was on. Overall, I think I got the basic gist.

Surprisingly, my vast experience of one week in Ireland was not enough to judge one way or another on the accents. I’ll have to leave that up to you to decide. Although I was a little surprised to see Christopher Walken in it attempting an Irish accent. I mean, out of the two, I think Walken would have been one to maybe mention. Who cast him as an Irishman and thought he’d be fine speaking with a different accent when his American accent is a little questionable?

But the opening scene in the movie shows the Cliffs of Moher. Hey! I’ve been there. Of course, when I was there, it was fogged in and I couldn’t really see the cliffs very well. I would have been more disappointed if this had been a bucket list to see. Or if I knew about them ahead of time. I didn’t. I only realized what I missed seeing when I went to the visitor’s center and saw what the view looked like normally. It also didn’t help when, days later, the guide taking us to the airport said there are only about 5 days a year when the cliffs are foggy like that.

The other call out I heard in the movie was when a couple of characters decided to travel the Ring of Kerry. Now, that I did get to see. When I heard it in the movie I couldn’t help but say, I’ve been there. Neither of the characters seemed to care.

Switching gears, I have added another song to my ever growing funeral song list. Yes, I moved from the movie to the song where I assume the movie got its title. If you know me or been a reader of this little blog you will know this is a dynamic list I add to. I also will leave it at that without further explanation. But the song Wild Mountain Thyme has now moved onto my list. Not the lyrics though. Play an instrumental of it. The melody just seems to fit my life I think.

Circling back, if you are interested in quirky, slow moving movies with accents that may or may not be believable, check this movie out. If for nothing else, listen to Christopher Walken attempt an Irish accent. Or something like that.

If you do watch it, just remember this one important thing: I’ve been there.