Shenae Grimes-Beech and Moira Kelly star as a young woman and her mother whose vacation to Ireland changes their lives in Love of the Irish, out this weekend on the Hallmark Channel. When Fiona (Grimes-Beech) learns that her mother Helen (Kelly) has recently found her Irish birth mother, she plans a trip to Ireland so they can meet her. While Helen grapples with her conflicted feelings about meeting her long-lost mother, Fiona is busy falling for a charming widower who makes her rethink her own ambitions for herself.
LOVE OF THE IRISH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Fiona (Shenae Grimes-Beech) is a cater-waitress but she’s not very good at the job, and she’s just doing it to pay the bills while she gets her dancing career off the ground. As Fiona works a cocktail party, she clumsily knocks over a tray before ducking out for a ballet audition.
The Gist: Fiona and her mom Helen (The Cutting Edge star Moira Kelly!) live in New York City and are both at a standstill with their jobs. Fiona, who is generally a magnet for bad luck, is frustrated at losing out on a part at her ballet audition, while her mother’s antique shop is temporarily closed after being flooded by the upstairs apartment.
When Fiona learns that Helen, who was adopted, has been holding on to a letter written to her by her birth mother who lives in Ireland, Fiona surprises her mom with a trip to Ireland so they can meet her. After all, Fiona’s just sitting there wallowing in self-pity, and Helen’s shop is closed for the time being. Early on in the trip, Fiona meets a widowed bartender named Liam (Stephen Hagan). Though they initially don’t get along, they become friends once Fiona tells Liam how unlucky she’s been all her life, and he becomes determined to prove that there’s good luck to be had yet. He’s a firm believer in luck and fate, so Fiona enlists him to help her locate Helen’s mother so she can reunite the two two women.
Fiona surprises her mother with a tour of an old country manor, and to Helen’s surprise, the tour guide is Helen’s mom. Helen is overwhelmed and refuses to meet the woman at first, but eventually returns to speak with her, only to discover just how much they have in common. Helen doesn’t initially reveal her true identity, so she can get to know the woman as a friend instead of a long-lost mother, but eventually when she does tell her, it’s an emotional reunion.
As Fiona spends the bulk of her time with Liam, she (obviously) starts to fall for him and comes to love his quaint small town and his young daughter, Annie. They picnic on the green cliffs and search for shamrocks and perform a laundry list of classic Irish luck rituals, discussing their goals and dreams, with Fiona revealing her aspiration to be a dancer and Liam showing Fiona the beers he’s been brewing, each one inspired by a different literary work. (This will come back around at the end of the film). Just when she discovers a local dance studio for sale that makes her think she’s destined to move to Ireland, (fate!) she gets a call from New York. The ballet she was originally rejected from has come a-calling and they want to offer her a lead role. It seems that all of Liam’s talk about luck has started to shift her own, but now she’s faced with the question of whether to return to her New York life and the instability of it all, or stay put and see where things with Liam will go.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? It seems like there’s a very specific formula for Hallmark movies about women taking trips abroad; not content with life at home, woman heads to Europe as a distraction, has a chance meeting with a man she initially doesn’t get along with, and then falls in love with him and his homeland. See also: Two Scoops of Italy and A Greek Recipe for Romance.
Our Take: The criss-crossing stories of Helen meeting her birth mother, MJ, and Fiona falling for Liam are woven together in a tender yet somehow kind of existential way that helps this movie feel much more philosophical than I ever would have thought. While Fiona’s klutzy, bad luck at first seems like just a character flaw, it ends up being a catalyst for more than a few deep conversations she has with Liam about fate, dreams, and finding purpose in life. The fact that the film naturally works these conversations into its predictably-plotted story elevates it in a way that isn’t always seen in Hallmark movies.
Similarly, Helen and MJ’s story feels like it will also be a reunion of long-lost family, but it probes deeper to explore what Helen has inherited from MJ, and the feelings that these traits stir up for her. Helen’s story gets slightly less screen time than Fiona’s romance, but it’s got an emotional heft to it, thanks to Kelly’s performance. The film probes the meaning of home, purpose, and family and, thanks to the newcomers in their lives, it helps the mother and daughter turn their fun vacation into a perspective-shifting, life changing journey.
Parting Shot: As Fiona exits her new dance studio in the middle of her new hometown, she gets a text from Liam. It’s the label he designed for a new beer he’s brewed, aptly named for Fiona’s favorite book, To Kill A Mockingbird, called Scout’s Honor.
Performance Worth Watching: After a young adulthood consuming all of Moira Kelly’s movies, it’s great to see her again and her performance feels authentic and warm, which helps to elevate the film.
Memorable Dialogue: “It looks like that good luck magic is working after all,” Helen tells Fiona when it seems like her luck is starting to turn around.
Our Call: Thanks to its dueling mother-daughter storylines, Love of the Irish is more than simply a romance, it’s a deeper family drama that tugs at the heartstrings while still providing a welcome happy ending. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love of the Irish’ on the Hallmark Channel, Where A Mother and Daughter’s Lives Both Change In Different Ways On A Trip To Ireland appeared first on Decider.
