OK, off the bat, this is a solid B movie with a horrible script and two great performances.
That being said, this is a movie you have already seen — many times. Let me tell you off the bat, the Girl gets the Boy in the end — the right one. How they get there you’ve also seen in every romantic comedy that involves a bickering couple — which is almost all of them. You will recognize every rom-com you can remember in here; and every situation is unrealistic, forced, and strains credibility. This is the type of film that asks you suspend the notion, for example, that a smart career woman would not change into a pair of jeans and flat shoes (she does late in the film) but instead trudge through sand, muck, hail, mud, and cow-doo in high heels. If you are okay with that, then it’ll be easier to go with the flow for the rest of the movie.
The inhabitants of Ireland are reduced to blathering “idjots” and idiom-hurling stereotypes. It’s as if the authors hadn’t even been to Ireland before writing their scrip, and saw it for the first time when they were there filming. That explains the half-realized scenic design — at times, as if the producers suddenly said “Ireland looks like this?? This is pretty! Film this! Put this in there somehwere!” and left it at that.
But what you do have here is a very charming Matthew Goode in the same role he plays in every movie, and a miscast and embarrassing but well-performed role for Amy Adams. It’s as if the movie was written for someone else but got Amy instead. Their relationship does indeed grow during the course of the film, and you do end up wanting them to get together by the end (which you already know they will). How they get there is as predictable as the rising of the sun and the tides. What Amy and Matthew are able to do, though, is play off of each other with a twinkle in the eye and a furrow of a brow. It’s great acting for two capable performers stuck in a horrible script. I want to repeat that one more time just for the record — this is a HORRIBLE script. It’s from the same folks who wrote “Made of Honor.” That’s probably all you need to know about the script. Oh, and it’s horrible.
There is nothing here creative, new, or thought provoking — but once or twice a year we need to see this type of movie again to remind ourselves of the long-lost romantic notion that love shines through differences and that we find our true soul-mate when we least expect it. It’s fun because we all know that it is complete and utter “shyte” in real life. There are four previews before the movie — all of them are for the same type of romantic comedy so there is lots more shyte on the way this winter.
UPDATE: Thought you might like to see what Matthew Goode thought of this masterpiece….”I didn’t do it for the script, I did it so I could fly home to England on the weekends”…
Mostly Musical Theatre 
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