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‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ may be one of the oddest rom-coms ever made
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The late 2010s and early 2020s gifted us a small but exciting run of unapologetically sincere romantic dramedies. I deeply miss those days and those films. They were quirky little gems that swung for the emotional fences, matching the big feelings I was navigating at the time. “Wild Mountain Thyme” is a more recent specimen with that same vulnerable heart, but it’s the movie’s sheer weirdness that still holds me captive. I stumbled upon it one evening on Hulu after a long, aimless scroll, and to this day, I still can’t quite believe what I watched.
On paper, the premise sounds straightforward. Two neighboring farmers, Rosemary (Emily Blunt) and Anthony (Jamie Dornan), have grown up next door to each other in rural Ireland. Rosemary has spent her life harbor-bound in love with Anthony. Anthony, meanwhile, is paralyzed by a private affliction he refuses to share with a soul. To make matters worse, his aging father (Christopher Walken) is contemplating selling the family farm out from under him to his slick American nephew (Jon Hamm). It has all the markings of a quiet movie about quiet people in a lush, rain-soaked country.
Except “Wild Mountain Thyme” is also, secretly, a work of magical realism. To say more would spoil the fun, but if you love films that masquerade as normal only to throw a massive curveball, this oddball is well worth your evening.
Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt) is an Irish farmer who’s spent most of her life in love with the very stubborn, very strange man who works the land next to hers. That would be Anthony Reilly (Jamie Dornan), a man who’s never quite figured out how to live in his own skin, let alone return Rosemary’s affection. The two of them have been neighbors, friends and unspoken almost-somethings for as long as anyone in the village can remember, and Rosemary’s patience is starting to wear thin.
Things get complicated when Anthony’s aging father, Tony Reilly (Christopher Walken), begins questioning whether his son is steady enough to inherit the family farm. Convinced Anthony might never really get it together, Tony invites his American nephew Adam (Jon Hamm) to come over from New York and inspect the property as a possible buyer. Adam takes an immediate interest in Rosemary.
But Anthony’s hesitation isn’t really about land, money or even his father; he’s been carrying around a secret for years that he doesn’t dare speak of. But as the threat of losing both the farm and Rosemary becomes real, Anthony has to decide whether he can finally tell her what is actually going on inside his head, even if it means admitting something nobody is going to believe.
It’s not often you watch a traditional rom-com devolve into what can only be described as a collective fever dream. Anthony’s secret is such a bizarre narrative pivot that it seems to drop out of the stratosphere. Yet, the moment you begin truly parsing the characters and their quirks, it makes a strange sort of sense. Anthony has been living under a literal delusion that manifests directly into the fabric of the film, hiding a mindscape you could never possibly guess from the outside.
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Until his confession, the entire film could be considered a bit of a pedestrian experience, dutifully tracing standard dramatic and romantic beats. But that contrast is exactly what makes the twist so comically, brilliantly good. It is strange and unexpected, and practically demands that you rewind to ensure your eyes and ears aren’t deceiving you.
For that reason alone, you should absolutely check out “Wild Mountain Thyme” while it’s available to stream on Hulu. You’ll either walk away with a profound new appreciation for the bounds of magical realism, or you’ll be left scratching your head in utter bewilderment. Either way, it’s an absolute win for weird cinema.
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