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Starring Ian Bannen, et al. Released to DVD on June 1, 1999. ![[Photo]](/photos/wakingneddevine1.jpg) There is often a certain negative stigmatism that goes along with the term 'cute'. This is often the case because people or films that are called 'cute' generally are striving to be lauded with other descriptive adjectives like stunning, witty, or beautiful. Baby ducks and A Bug's Life are supposed to be cute, 30 year old women and Irish comedies aspire to be something completely different. Such is precisely the case here though, with Kirk Jones' film, Waking Ned Devine; while originally shooting for a The Full Monty-like charm and wit, Jones has to settle for cute. Ian Bannen and David Kelly star as two old friends who live in a small, quaint village in Ireland. Rumor has it that someone in their town of roughly 100 people has won the Irish lottery, worth at least one million bottles of Guinness. So, in a typically calculating and capitalistic fashion, Bannen and Kelly attempt to be most cordial and warm to the winner, only to learn that the man who hit the jackpot, Ned Devine, has died from the shock of matter. The plan? Kelly impersonates Devine and the villagers aim to scam the city-dwelling, government officials into giving them Ned's fortune, reasoning that Ned would have wanted it that way. Shot on the Isle of Mann, which doubled on-screen as Ireland, Jones' film suffered, and suffered badly, from the oh-so-stereotypical Irish setting; I felt positively green after screening this film. In my eyes, setting a film in Ireland is one strike against the movie. While other settings have an abundance of traits that define their particular locale, effectively giving the picture another character and added dimension, Ireland is as one-dimensional a setting as can be concocted. The characters drink Irish ale in dimly lit bars, walk, or run, across the moors and fields of gold, drink Irish ale in dimly lit bars, live in small, rustic towns on hillsides and drink Irish ale in dimly lit bars. Combined with Jones' almost strikingly one-dimensional leads, the Irish setting-which looked exactly like the print ads for Bailey's Original Irish Cream, and Irish Spring soap-served only to further alienate me from the on-screen story. The lite, comic nature of Waking Ned Devine was entertaining to a degree, but the syrupyness of the script and the stagnant nature of the Irish setting ultimately removed this film from achieving that The Fully Monty-like success Jones so obviously desired. This was quite a cute film, but doesn't hold a candle to the other warm, charming, small-town British movie, Little Voice. See Little Voice.
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![[Photo]](/photos/wakingneddevine2.jpg)
Undoubtedly inspired by the success of another Fox Searchlight film, the previously mentioned The Full Monty, Jones attempted to follow the same script formula in Waking Ned Devine to fill the hearts of those American movie-goers who spent over $100 million on The Full Monty with cheer, good tidings, and Irish charm. Unfortunately for Jones, who both wrote and directed Waking Ned Devine, his script focused more on created light, fluffy, feel-good humor than on creating three-dimensional characters or any dramatic scenes, two elements of a film that especially capture an audiences attention and sympathy.