Jackie O'Shea (Ian Bannen) and Michael O'Sullivan (David Kelly) hasten to Ned's cottage, to find him seated in front of the television set, clutching the winning ticket--and dead. The winnings, they are astounded to learn, are not several hundred thousand pounds, as they had assumed, but nearly 7 million pounds. A fortune! Alas, since Ned Devine is dead, the money will be recycled back into the kitty for next week's drawing.
Right? Not on your life. Jackie and Michael hatch a plan to fool the visiting official from Dublin, who after all has never laid eyes on Ned in his life (few have, outside of Tullymore). Michael will impersonate Ned. The whole town will of course have to be in on the scheme, and so Jackie and Michael draw up an agreement in which their friends and neighbors will join in the deception and share in the prize.
That's the premise of another one of those delightful village comedies that seem to spin out of the British isles annually. "Waking Ned Devine" can take its place alongside "Local Hero," "Comfort and Joy," "The Snapper," "The Van," "The Full Monty," "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain," "Brassed Off," "Eat the Peach" and many others. Why don't we have more small-town comedies like this from America? Why are small towns in the U.K. and Ireland seen as conspiracies of friends, while American small towns are so often depicted as lairs of wackos? One of the joys of "Waking Ned Devine" is in the richness of the local eccentric population.
There is, for example, the mean-spirited Lizzy Quinn (Eileen Dromey) who tools around on her battery-powered chair, scowling and spreading ill will. Contrast her with the hard-working Pig Finn (James Nesbitt), a handsome young pig farmer who loves Maggie (Susan Lynch). She loves him, too, but not the way he smells. Either the pigs go or she does.
And there is the substitute village priest (Dermot Kerrigan), filling in during the regular's vacation, who has solemn talks about theology with bright young Maurice (Robert Hickey), who says of a life devoted to the Lord: "I don't think I could work for someone I never met." The treasure of the local population is Michael O'Sullivan, who is played by David Kelly in what can only be described as a performance arriving at the ultimate reaches of geezerdom. Kelly, with his twinkling eyes and turkey neck, is engaging, conspiratorial and delighted by all things not too wicked.
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