Irish Wish, which was directed by Janeen Damian and stars Lindsay Lohan as a lovelorn book editor who gets granted one fateful wish while visiting Ireland, is precisely what you would expect it to be: a lighthearted fantasy about dream fulfillment set against a serene backdrop of rolling hills with an emerald tone and dramatic cliffs. In addition, there’s a classic family estate tossed in, the type of million-room palace that, while seeming immaculate and sophisticated in films, is actually very difficult to maintain dry, warm, and light.Particularly in the world of Netflix romances, which is what Irish Wish, shamelessly, is, these well-known components are selling qualities rather than drawbacks. But Lindsay Lohan, who has just rebranded herself as a romantic-comedy heroine, is undoubtedly the film’s biggest lure, for both noble and maybe shady reasons.
Furthermore, why not? One of the most talented performers of her generation in her youth and early adulthood, Lohan wowed audiences with her charisma and impeccable timing in films like Freaky Friday and The Parent Trap. She captured the attention of not only young viewers but also almost everyone who had attended high school when she portrayed the awkward kid turned hotshot Cady Heron in the original Mean Girls a few years later. As a performer, Lohan was almost difficult to hate, but it didn’t take long for her publicly publicized drug abuse problems, her strained relationship with her parents, and her generally chaotic conduct to turn her into a fascination for those who had never seen her in a film.
Her career was ruined by the obscene attention she received; in 2013, she gave a melancholic, unpolished performance in Paul Schrader’s The Canyons, portraying a young Hollywood lady involved with a cunning film mogul lover. Many people were still making fun of her at the time. Those who are interested in movies have subsequently reexamined both the image and the performance. Though Schrader understood precisely what he was doing, it was far more fashionable—and easier—at the time to mock Lohan as a lousy actor. He wrote in Film Comment at the time of the film’s premiere on the resemblances he perceived between Lohan and Marilyn Monroe:All of it, together with something more—that quality that draws your attention to someone on film, that magic, that mystery—is what makes someone captivating. Tardiness, unpredictable behavior, tantrums, absences, neediness, and psychodrama are all there. That which caused John Huston to remark, “I wonder why I go to dailies after putting myself through all of this.”
Although Lohan’s career was not rekindled by The Canyons, she has subsequently found success in television and small-scale motion pictures (she had an appearance in the most current Mean Girls remake). The first movie she co-directed with Damian was the romantic comedy Falling for Christmas in 2022, which told the story of an amnesiac heiress who meets an unusual love interest after a skiing accident. Irish Wish is her second film with Damian. It appears that some people would like to see Lohan, who is currently in her mid-thirties, in these kinds of roles, and we can understand why. Her eager wistfulness made her an easy character to identify to even as a teenage performer, and that hasn’t changed.
In Lohan’s Irish Wish, Maddie Kelly falls in love with the handsome Irishman Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos), whose debut novel she helped write. It’s most likely that Lohan essentially authored the book. She still adores him and wants him to reciprocate her feelings. Rather, he develops feelings for Emma (Elizabeth Tan), a kind but shallow friend of hers, and the two soon become engaged. The spacious, immaculate country house comes in handy when it comes to Paul’s family estate in Ireland, where the wedding is being place. Maddie and her friends leap across the big body of water that is so endearingly referred to as “the pond” to attend the ceremony.Maddie recognizes she shouldn’t, but she yet holds a flame for Paul. Maddie so confesses her long-suppressed desire that she would be the one to wed Paul when a charming, wish-granting mythological creature—it turns out to be Saint Brigid, portrayed by Dawn Bradfield—appears out of nowhere and offers to give her a wish.
Naturally, as we’ve previously seen, Paul is conceited and haughty, making him the unsuitable person for her. It turns out that Mr. Right is actually James, an eloquently perceptive English naturalist photographer portrayed by Ed Speleers. However, all of this magical switcheroo narrative foolishness is only ceremonial; everyone who visits Irish Wish, be it a friend, adversary, or an impartial onlooker, has come for Lohan. How would you describe her? What is her performance?
Lohan most likely has more to offer than Irish Wish requests. In certain aspects, her sharply focused gaze and somewhat cynical smile appear too emotionally developed, too rational, to portray a close to middle-aged lady infatuated with a clear loser. (Paul turns out to be opportunistic, conceited, and ignorant—not really a horrible man.) anywhere while this performance isn’t anywhere close to a tour de force, there is something endearing and moving about it. What appeals to me so much about it is its casualness.Maddie is a girl who has been given some quite cliched characteristics: she has always loved books, yet we never see her actually reading one. She sighs when photographer James takes her to see the Cliffs of Moher, stating that James Joyce is her favorite author (and they do seem very amazing).
However, the actor we’re seeing here is getting close to middle age, but she’s portraying a character who may be a little younger but is still doubtful that she will ever find love. I’m not sure how she does it, but Lohan gives the impression that Maddie is a voracious reader who genuinely loves James Joyce but keeps it a secret, only disclosing it to those who might share her viewpoint. While portraying Maddie, Lohan retains elements of her enthusiastic, impressionable longing, but it has been replaced by a sobering realization that life seldom goes as planned.It almost seems as though Lohan is attempting to recover years that she may have spent portraying a persona similar to this when she was younger. She portrays Maddie as someone you wish the best for. And sometimes a romantic comedy heroine only needs to be that.
