The Closer You Get Reviews

Oh, the amusing rural Irish, with their twinkly eyes, adorable accents and wellington boots! If you succumbed to the charms of WAKING NED DEVINE, you'll no doubt be equally enchanted by this bit of blarney. County Donegal may be beautiful, in its rainy, windswept way, but it's woefully short on female pulchritude. At least, that's how the local men see things, and led by vocal malcontents Kieran (Ian Hart) and Ollie (Patt Short), they cook up a plan to do something about it. The lads place an ad in a Miami newspaper, inviting adventurous American girls to come join them for the annual St. Martha's Day dance, with an eye to meaningful relationships and eventual marriage. Not suprisingly, the local girls are thoroughly pissed off, especially Siobhan (Cathleen Bradley), whose crush on Kieran is a secret to no one but him. Complicating romantic matters further is the fact that sheep farmer Ian (Sean McGinley), Kieran's older brother, is quietly smitten with Kate (Niamh Cusack); Kate in turn is unhappily married to former soccer star Pat (Ewan Stewart), who owns the local pub and has an ill-concealed roving eye. Things all work themselves out, though not without plenty of the Guiness-fueled blather for which the Irish are justly famous. It's all sweet-natured and as inconsequential as can be, shored up by smooth, low-key ensemble performances. No Emerald Isle cliché is left unturned, from the tongue-tied priest to the middle-aged mum whose tweedy exterior conceals a lusty nature; whether this is a plus or a minus depends on how amusing you find them.