A Date For Mad Mary (2016/ dir. Darren Thornton)
The third annual Ottawa Irish Film Festival opening night was tonight, and the first film was wonderful.
"A Date For Mad Mary" is a film that Ireland can be quite proud of.
I thoroughly enjoyed this slice of modern Irish life by Darren Thornton, who joined the audience Live via Skype for a Q&A afterwards, along with gorgeous actress Tara Lee, who was a special guest on this opening night.
The film is intimate, following a one Mary, who just got out of jail.
She is beautiful, has similarities to Scarlett Johannsen in the looks department, and I found this film to be very charming and engaging. Mary's best friend Charlene is getting married, and Mary is asked to be the Maid of Honor. Long story short, this film chronicles Mary's worldview from being released from prison to erotic awakenings to contemplating life itself. To detail what happens to her and her "exploration" of all that follows would spoil a wonderful treat at the cinemas. This is slice-of-life, played/acted flawlessly. The story is perhaps "Chick-Lit", as they say, but as a man I found it very humourous and charming. Dublin Ireland has REAL people living there, folks. And this film shows us in technicolor how real an Irish girl's life is. She's Maid of Honor, but a date is a problem...a key scene is when she's denied the opportunity to speak at her friends' wedding. There is nuance here, and this is a film that requires attention paid, as one can get lost in the Irish accents. (Have no fear- not as bad as the Scottish accents in
Trainspotting).
Afterwards the director told us that he was very happy with his cast and that the film had a nice 4 month box office bonanza in Dublin last year.
Big thumbs up from me.
What can I compare it to?
It's like an Irish Chungking Express...not quite as polished, but in that arena.
Enjoyed it. Loved the interplay and contemplative scenes...it seemed very real, not staged.
Last edited by Johann; 04-02-2017 at 07:15 PM.
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