Where to watch Irish Wish
2 1/2 Stars
When the love of Maddie’s life gets engaged to her best friend, she puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland.
Lindsay Lohan’s second Netflix movie after 2022’s dismal Falling for Christmas is surprisingly easier to watch while only marginally better in execution. Lohan is as always a delight and very likeable on screen, but the plot is as razor thin as the chemistry between any of the couples in this flick.
The magical side, with the Irish Wish being a literal wish to a Catholic Saint (we are in Ireland after all), is less than magical. A strong wind, and the Saint popping up at odd moments to force Lohan’s character into position with the real love of her life instead of the one she wished for, the whole thing feels inorganic. Actually the best part of the film is the opening, everything before the wish, which feels real and spontaneous. But too soon we are stuck with a woman’s wish to marry the man of her dreams, which has treated her second rate and clearly has no feelings for her, even after her wish is granted.
The plot is too obvious and we know exactly what is going to happen. Perhaps this is as designed, and fine for what it is, but it lacks any true emotion. And while I appreciate the callbacks to Just My Luck and Freaky Friday I’d appreciate even more if this movie had the heart of the much-maligned 2009’s Labor Pains. The main character’s mistake is too apparent, the lesson so simple to call, I’m way ahead of our heroine. And the worst of it, the film is so soft on her. Never putting her in any real danger of losing love. Coddling her along the way to her true love.
Even when she’s made aware that the love she wished for is returning to his true love (essentially cheating on her) it’s all a happy ending because she too has found true love (essentially cheating on her true love wished for). And of course in the end, Lohan’s character gets it all, the guy of her dreams, the dream job (she’s responsible for the success of her wished for love’s by the way, cause she’s his editor but also authoring all his books). So basically she’s amazing the whole movie but just never realized it, and that’s the real lesson.
I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t enjoy these Hallmark level stories, cause I do. But my Irish Wish is that they give Lohan a bit more to chew on in her third Netflix outing.
Directed by: Janeen Damian
Written by: Kirsten Hansen
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Ed Speleers, Alexander Vlahos