Add Irish Wish to your List

Irish Wish is a 2024 film released right before St. Patrick’s Day of this year. The movie stars Lindsey Lohan as Maddie, a book editor who is absolutely in love with the author she is working with. They’ve been collaborating together for many years and they have developed a bond Maddie is convinced could be true love. She keeps waiting for him to say he has feelings for her first after he says he wants to talk to her about something. At the party, the author Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos) meets Maddie’s best friend Emma (Elizabeth Tan) and the two hit it off. Paul’s question turns out to be an offer to work on his next book and Maddie is heartbroken. A few months later, Maddie is in Ireland preparing for the wedding of one of her best friends and the man she’s been in love with for years.

From the moment Maddie lands in Ireland, the trip is an utter disaster. Not only is she stuck watching the man she loves fawn over her best friend, the airport loses her luggage, and she keeps running into a cynical and handsome photographer who insists on challenging her. While her friends are out on an excursion, Maddie takes a moment to herself. She sits down on a big rock and wishes that she was the one marrying Paul Kennedy. Suddenly her wish has come true, and Maddie is left wondering if her wish was really what she wanted. 

This movie is ultimately about fate, and how wanting something doesn’t always mean it will work out. Maddie and Paul don’t really get along well as a couple; he forces her into things she doesn’t want to do and lets his family walk all over her. Maddie ends up compromising herself very quickly in order to fit into Paul Kennedy’s life. When Maddie runs into James (Ed Speleers), the cynical photographer, he somehow gets wrapped up in the craziness of the Kennedy wedding. 

With James enlisted as the wedding photographer, Maddie and James are forced to spend more time together. While scouting out places to take wedding pictures, an act of fate traps the two together on the other side of a collapsed tree in the road. Maddie and James grow closer, learning more about each other and having fun with one another. 

When Maddie gets back to the Kennedy estate, she has a hard time feeling like she made the right choice with her wish. She sees the way Paul and Emma still look at each other longingly, and she feels guilty for having taken the love of her friend selfishly. It then becomes Maddie’s goal to set things right, and if possible, reverse the wish entirely.  

This movie is classic Lindsay Lohan and she shines among her lesser known cast mates.

I’d say this movie would fit under the category of “guilty pleasures”. It’s not a great movie, it’s not going to win any awards, but I was entertained by it. The movie feels like a bargain bin version of a Nicholas Sparks novel adaptation. It’s not quite a Hallmark Christmas movie, but it’s very close. All it’s really missing is a visit from Santa Claus. 

The humor in this movie, like most of Lindsay Lohan’s films, comes from her falling down or some kind of physical comedy. It kind of reminded me a lot of her old movies like Freaky Friday, especially because of the whole wish plot. Maybe it was just because Lindsay Lohan was in it, but it could be because the humor was pretty similar between the two. Lots of falling down jokes, lots of Lindsay Lohan getting frustrated and annoyed. Despite a lot of the jokes falling flat, I do enjoy seeing Lindsay Lohan back in movies. It reminds me of a simpler time in life where any movie starring Lindsay Lohan was bound to be a hit. While I don’t think Irish Wish will become a classic like Freaky Friday or Mean Girl has, the movie has a charm I believe all Lindsay Lohan movies have.  

The movie is filled with cliche lessons and incidents. I don’t think this movie is anything we haven’t already seen in movies or on TV before, but it’s fun. I found myself invested in the things I knew about the main character and the relationships she was cultivating. While a lot of the characters fell flat for me, I felt like Maddie and James were both great characters and well matched.

Do I think Jacob would like this movie? No, absolutely not, but I also don’t think it’s a movie for him. He likes movies that are obviously good, and this movie just isn’t that. This movie was fun to watch and would be perfectly entertaining for a girl’s night or a night alone. It’s a cheesy romance that knows exactly what it is and who it is for.