Film Review: Irish Wish is charmingly whimsical - but a study in stage-Irish stereotype

"Those who take a dim view of Oirish stereotypes would do well to steer clear — even if the stereotypes are more misguided than offensive..."

Lindsay Lohan as Maddie Kelly in Irish Wish

• Irish Wish 
• ★★★☆☆
• Netflix

Irish Wish (PG) stars Lindsay Lohan as Maddy, a Manhattan-based book editor secretly in love with her bestselling Irish author, Paul (Alexander Vlahos).

Invited to Mayo as a bridesmaid for Paul’s nuptials with her best friend, Emma (Elizabeth Tan), Maddy finds herself wishing it was she marrying Paul, unaware the ostensibly friendly Irish colleen giving her advice is the mischievous St Brigid (Dawn Bradfield), whose wish-granting, according to the film, delivers not what you want, but what you actually need.

Written by Kirsten Hansen and directed by Janeen Damian, Irish Wish comes on like a live-action Disney princess fairytale, as charmingly whimsical as it is utterly implausible (and, for that matter, wholly predictable).

Those who take a dim view of Oirish stereotypes would do well to steer clear — dashing English photographer James (Ed Speelers) has arrived in Mayo to document the annual Sheep Shearing Contest — even if the stereotypes are more misguided than offensive (a James Joyce reference is especially ill-judged).

But. the country looks absolutely ravishing, and if the geography is a little muddled (at one point Maddy and James depart Mayo and arrive at the Cliffs of Moher via a quick spin down the avenue at Powerscourt Estate), then that’s a small price to pay — an investment, really — in return for the hordes of Irish-American tourists who will inevitably descend on the West next summer.