The late 2010s and early 2020s gifted us a small but exciting run of unapologetically sincere romantic dramedies. I deeply miss those days and those films. They were quirky little gems that swung for the emotional fences, matching the big feelings I was navigating at the time. "Wild Mountain Thyme" is a more recent specimen with that same vulnerable heart, but it's the movie's sheer weirdness that still holds me captive. I stumbled upon it one evening on Hulu after a long, aimless scroll, and to this day, I still can’t quite believe what I watched.
On paper, the premise sounds straightforward. Two neighboring farmers, Rosemary (Emily Blunt) and Anthony (Jamie Dornan), have grown up next door to each other in rural Ireland. Rosemary has spent her life harbor-bound in love with Anthony. Anthony, meanwhile, is paralyzed by a private affliction he refuses to share with a soul. To make matters worse, his aging father (Christopher Walken) is contemplating selling the family farm out from under him to his slick American nephew (Jon Hamm). It has all the markings of a quiet movie about quiet people in a lush, rain-soaked country.
