And, she said,
“Magic is all around
Just waiting to be found
A secret it shall be
Until, you choose to see”
– Poem written by Athey Thompson
And yes, there is magic! Not the feats of legerdemain where a tuxedoed fellow pulls a bunny out of a hat, but the true magic that lies in the eternal cycles of nature, in the creativity of men and women, whether by the healing power experienced in a walk in the woods or captured in art on paper or canvas, the manipulation of stone or clay, the stage, the screen, the sounds of song or the words of the writer. Each brings magic if you are open to it. Each transforms the participant in that exchange.
Sometimes, when icy weather and interminable pandemics and political brouhaha challenge your sense of the real, you need some magic.
In my search for magic, I found “Wild Mountain Thyme.”
“Wild Mountain Thyme” is a film, based on a play, “Outside Mullingar,” written by Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley. Advertised as a romantic comedy set in Ireland, this descendant of famine immigrants settled in one afternoon to find a small respite, if only in the cinematic telling of a romance. I found much more. I found magic.
Contrary to the reviewers that excoriated the film for the choice non-Irish actors, particularly Christopher Walken, their counterfeit mid-Irish accents and a feral story that fit on the stage more than the screen, “Wild Mountain Thyme” was a tour de force for the telling of an old story in a poetic form.
Heck, if it was a documentary of Irish life they were looking for, this was not the piece. But, should they have been available to find poetry, this was exactly it.
Deliberately, carefully, the tale describes the dance of life executed by Anthony Reilly and Rosemary Muldoon, attended and joined in by their kith and kin and the earth from which they came, and which nourished them.
There are pointed references to the powers of the earth, the cycles and unity of life, from the deaths of parents to the use of weather, rainy and stormy weather described by Rosemary’s mother, “ It rains on all of us” to the prophetic behavior of Rosemary’s wild Delphic horse.
Anthony offers an explanation of why he works the land, “There’s these green fields, and the animals living off them. And over that there’s us, living off the animals. And over that there’s that which tends to us, and lives off us, maybe. Whatever that is, it hold me here.”
People aren’t people either. They echo the ideas of totemic existence. Anthony’s father tells him that he is a Kelly and all Kellys are fish. References to male and female, to their roles in life, the unity of all life of every kind, are part of a poem that reminds us of the beauty of the earth, all of its creatures and the cycles of life.
Anthony and Rosemary are figures in what might be called an Irish vision quest. She is the mad White Swan and he is the honeybee.
And it is also warmly funny, the soft sound of Ireland and a turn of phrase that reaches you where you chuckle and smile.
I’ve seen it three times. I will see it again.
Am I the great interpreter of film? Not. I may have been just looking for this. Did I see what I wanted to see? As the opening poem says, “Magic is all around, just waiting to be found” … until I chose to see.
The movie is free on hulu and available to rent on other streaming services. Just in case you are looking for magic.
