the small-scale film , in limited release , ” waking ned devine ” is a pleasant excursion to a time and place which allows the audience to absorb the full texture of a small town .
filled with breathtaking scenery , ‘characters’ , and delightful music , the movie would be interesting even without a plot .
the story contains several surprises which are best left unmentioned in a review .
the film starts out with a sharp opening , which gives us a taste of what is to follow : country folk with an inclination for a bit of larceny .
what gets things going is the fact that a winner of the lottery is apparently one of the residents in the small town ( pop 52 ) of tullymore .
who that person is , and how to share in the good fortune is the mission of two longtime friends jackie ( ian bannen ) and michael ( david kelly ) .
part detectives , part scalawags , they have to stay alert to the changing circumstances they face as the story unfolds .
the village consists of several amusing characters .
a clueless pig farmer , temporary priest , and a witch .
there’s also the lotto man who must be satisfied that everything is on the up-and-up .
there are no hollywood touches to this film – except for the outer space introduction [ ! ] .
pacing is right .
towards the end , it runs a bit out of steam , but that’s okay because for most of the 90 minutes we’ve been interested in the goings on .
a mixture of laughs and ( occasional ) sentiment – all the right emotions are engaged .
in one brief dream sequence – you’ll know it when you see it – a fantastic combination of color and music transports the characters to a place you really hope exists .
one of the key moments in the film .
the music , available on cd ( london 289 460 939-2 ) follows the same arc as the movie and is well worth considering .
a fine film that’s for everybody except action fans .
somewhat like ‘the englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain , ‘ . . .
but livelier .