Waking Ned Release date: March 19 1999 Ian Bannen David Kelly Fionnula Flanagan Director: Kirk Jones Screen Writer: Kirk Jones Details: 91 mins Cert PG UK
The lottery is an absolute hot-bed of comedic possibilities and unsurprisingly there've been a few films take advantage of this. The latest is Waking Ned in which the golden finger of fate pokes decisively at an old age pensioner in a small Irish village who then celebrates by promptly dropping dead.
Jackie O'Shea (Ian Bannen) discovers that lady luck has selected one of Tullymore's 52 inhabitants and sets off on a personal quest to find out exactly who it is. His bullish investigations soon lead to the conclusion that the winner must be Ned Devine. But Ned's unlikely to be spending any of his windfall because Ned - no not Zed, Ned - is dead. And with Lottery rep Jim Kelly (Brendan F. Dempsey) on the way, the claim will die with him unless Jackie and best mate Michael played by David Kelly of Robin's Nest fame (he was the one armed waiter) can pull enough of a fast one to convince the lottery rep and the town that the winning ticket belongs to them.
The cast is wonderfully unstarry and quite frankly, that makes the movie. Originally Kirk Jones received offers from Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon to play the parts of the Irish penny-pinching duo but Jones turned them down and chose Dempsey and Kelly instead - both small screen heroes of his. The decision to turn down Hollywood big bucks and big names was a brave one. Reviewers in the states may be more than willing to bad mouth their native city's stars but when an outsider chooses to shun those same stars a strange patriotism emerges. As a result there are fears Waking Ned won't do as well in the States as it most certainly will over here in the UK.
Watching the film you can't help but think of the Full Monty. Kirk Jones saturates the story with charming subplots and quirky humour while keeping the level of sentimentality in check throughout. There are daft moments and hilarious moments but never unrealistic or plot-pandering moments that might otherwise wreck the whole thing. Bannen and Kelly hurl themselves into their parts with the vigour and enthusiasm of two British talents left out of the picture for far too long, and whether skinny-dipping at a picturesque cove or steaming along naked on a motorbike, they never fail to raise a laugh.
As much a testament to the two likeable old coots who've proved you don't need to be under 30 to be an excellent British actor, this film is an exemplification of Kirk Jones' comendable love for homegrown talent, location and movie-making which should, at the very least, earn him a BAFTA.
Waking Ned opened March 19th 1999
More reviews at Saturn UK http://www.saturnuk.com (updates each Thursday) Posted by Wil Tirion (Film & Cinema cor.)
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