Irish Wish is not technically a Netflix Christmas movie, but it shares all of the genre’s hallmarks: It’s vaguely holiday-themed (I’m inferring the St. Patrick’s Day connection based on the film’s release date and the fact that it has no other reason to take place in Ireland), everyone in it dresses like they have only ever shopped on amazon.com on Cyber Monday, there is no sex or sexual chemistry to speak of despite the entire plot hinging on the possibility thereof, and every scene is lit and color coded like a poorly managed children’s hospital.
The primary difference here, however, is that Irish Wish is a thinly veiled Trojan horse for the conservative agenda, a crypto-fascist work of art cluttered with right-wing dog whistles and dialogue that could have only been written by a malevolently programmed artificial intelligence. I attempted to identify and examine its most troubling moments, which ended up being the entire movie from start to finish, which I watched twice while feeling the walls of reality melt around me.
“She is such a smart actor in what she focuses in on,” Damian says about Lohan, who also serves as a producer. “She is very involved in the story and really communicative.
She’s really easy to work with that way. She prepares and she studies and she comes in with an idea of who her character is — not just in the dialogue but also what she is going to wear and all the different elements that speak to who her character actually is.”
Damian believes Irish Wish is an organic next step in reestablishing Lohan’s place wearing the romantic-comedy mantle, when she made her mark with Mean Girls, Just My Luck and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, following significant time away from the spotlight.
“This was a conscientious choice for her to give her audience what they’ve been missing,” the director says. “She’s so solid and lovable, and it’s a multi-layered performance. She’s at her best.”
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