# Waking Ned Devine (1998)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    WAKING NED DEVINE
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Will it be prison for Jackie and Michael, senior citizens living in a remote Irish village? Or will it be great riches instead?

It all depends on the success of their big scam in WAKING NED DEVINE. Honest all of their lives until a great temptation comes their way in the form of an unclaimed lottery ticket, they are now ready to prevaricate day and night.

Someone in their little hamlet has won over six million pounds in the lottery, but who? With only 52 residents they devise a scheme whereby they will wine and dine the locals in hopes of getting in the good graces of the winner. Along the way they engage in a detective game to ascertain who the lucky person is.

Veteran actors, Ian Bannen and David Kelly, play Jackie and Michael with such great gusto that it is obvious that they are having the time of their lives. Fionnula Flanagan plays Jackie's wife and co-conspirator.

Eventually Jackie and Michael locate the lucky bloke, one Ned Devine. He turns out to have suffered a fatal case of excessive luck, having died in front of his TV when the numbers were chosen. Jackie and Michael find him with a big frozen smile on his face and his winning ticket clinched firmly in his hand.

The rest of the movie has them enlisting the entire town to collude in hiding Ned's death and convincing the lottery man from the big city that Michael is Ned.

Will the town pull it off and share in the riches or will their plan somehow go awry?

WAKING NED DEVINE suffers from an excess of good concept and casting and a deficit in plot development. The movie runs on autopilot most of the time with the townsfolk making small talk and hanging out at the local pub. Scenes of naked octogenarian males on motorcycles are certainly different, which is not the same thing as interesting.

A good-spirited film, it features lovely pictures of the Irish coastline and countryside. Although there is nothing wrong with the picture, it is rarely compelling. Without much of an ending, the film basically just stops. We are left with some nice characterizations but a series of missed opportunities in the script development. A pleasant enough movie, it could and should have been more successful.

WAKING NED DEVINE runs about 1:30. It is not rated but probably would be an R for brief scenes of full-frontal male nudity and would be fine for teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com

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