Review of Irish Wish, directed by Janeen Damian

I honestly had not thought about Lindsey Lohan in years. I was of the generation that would watch her in television movies geared towards kids when I was growing up, so in my mind, Lindsey Lohan kind of just exists in a world of Freaky Friday and that’s it, nothing else.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up my Netflix account when I was bored one morning, looking to procrastinate even more on my master’s thesis, and I saw this movie Irish Wish had come out. And not just that—it was trending as one of the top movies on Netflix that week.

I also saw Lindsey Lohan was in it immediately, which made me think about how I knew nothing about her recent work, if she had anything at this point otherwise, and I read the synopsis. I thought it sounded really dumb, but I pressed play anyways because why not.

And that was how I ended up watching Irish Wish. Let’s get into the review!

As a woman comes to her friend’s marriage abroad, she makes a wish and finds herself betrothed to the groom in an alternate universe.

Our main character in this movie is Maddie, a book editor with a knack for writing herself, but doesn’t act on it. At the beginning of the movie, she’s attending the book launch and party for one of her biggest clients: Paul Kennedy. She’s worked on his book for the past year, but she’s made some major edits, making it pretty much her book.

She brings her friends Emma and Heather to the party, and it becomes pretty clear early on that Maddie has a thing for Paul Kennedy, but just doesn’t say anything directly about it. The joke’s on her though when he meets eyes with her friend Emma, and the two hit it off immediately.

Paul also asks Maddie to edit his next novel, which she agrees to, even though it would put her and her passion projects behind in favor of him. Well, turns out things move quickly in this world, as three months later Paul and Emma are getting married.

Everyone flies out to Ireland for the wedding, and Maddie decides to make peace with her situation and be happy for her friend. But when they arrive in Ireland, her luggage is lost, and she almost tries to take an English guy’s, Jame’s, luggage instead. Her friends leave without her, and then Maddie has to get on the bus by herself.

Of course she is next to James on it, and the two fight all the way to the estate. But when she gets there, Maddie increasingly feels like she is pretty much a fifth wheel with everyone around, and she heads up into the grassy area to just be by herself.

There, she encounters a fairy, and makes a wish that Paul was marrying her instead. She wakes up in a bed the next morning, and turns out her wish became a reality: she is marrying Paul. However, she doesn’t believe any of this is happening, making the situation potentially even more awkward for everyone involved.

The more she hangs out with Paul though as a partner, the more she comes to despise him. They go on a bike ride where he chastises her, and Emma takes her place and keeps up with him. Maddie also doesn’t like the heirloom dress she would be forced to wear, and while she spots the fairy outside, she chases after her.

However, she falls in James’ car instead. He doesn’t remember her because of the fairy, but she certainly remembers him. Paul’s mother then hires him on the spot to do the photography at the wedding, and he accepts.

Paul tries to sleep with Maddie that night, and she punches him so hard he’s not well the next morning. She goes out with James to find photo spots instead, and then they have fun all night at a pub, showing that they actually have pretty great chemistry when they’re not fighting with each other.

Maddie then realizes that she should be marrying James, and the morning of the wedding, he can see that she is sad about it. Maddie tells the priest about how the fairy is Saint Brigid, and he tells her that this saint actually gives people what they need.

With Emma, she confirms that Emma still has feelings for Paul, and when it’s time for the wedding to start, Maddie shows up in her regular clothes. She tells Paul she’s not in love with him, he gets into fight with James, as he saw him with Maddie earlier.

James then flees, blaming himself for being a homewrecker, and they kiss, but then he flees again. Maddie then goes to the wishing bench and asks to go back again, and that happens. Emma and Paul get married, Maddie quits being his editor unless he admits she is a co-writer, and then she goes to find James at the pub.

Overall Thoughts

I honestly do not have much to say about this movie—it’s full of tropes, it’s fun, and it’s also frustrating when it needs to be.

I hate romantic comedies usually, but I didn’t absolutely hate this one. It was fun in the moment, and Saint Patrick’s Day was coming up when I watched it. One could say this was perfect timing.

Will I rewatch it though? Probably not. This is a one and done kind of movie for me.

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