movie review: waking ned devine

 ‘waking ned devine’ is a comedy from 1998 set in a rural village in ireland. the movie begins when jackie o’shea and his friend michael o’sullivan learn that someone in their tiny town has won the national lottery. they soon figure out that it must be their neighbor and friend, ned devine. when they go and check on ned to tell him he’s won, they find him in front the tv with the winning ticket in his hand, dead with a smile on his face. the excitement of realising he is going to be a millionaire has given ned a heart attack. all of the characters mentioned so far are at least 75. 

saddened by the death of their friend, but almost equally saddened by the fact that the winnings will just go back to the state, they devise a plan to claim the winnings by pretending that michael is really ned. however, they quickly realise that to pull this off, they need the cooperation of all the villagers. 

thus starts a ruse that requires the characters to traverse increasingly comedic situations as they work to pull a fast one over the lottery inspector. 

this movie is a feel-good movie from start to finish and feels like the warmest of hugs. this might seem counter intuitive considering the premise is basically a sort of geriatric heist that centers around the death of a member of the town. however, what gives this movie its power is the message it sends about community. 

weirdly, the message in waking ned devine about community can be shown through a comparison to the new spiderman movie: brand new day. through the negative effects of spending the last few years in isolation with no one knowing his true identity, spiderman’s story in this movie sends the message that our sense of self depends on those around us. peter parker the person fades away from spiderman the superhero as he spends more and more time alone. oppositely, in waking ned devine, the community proves to the lotto investigator that michael is really ned through the fact that they state he is. ned’s existence is resurrected through the people he knew asserting that he is still alive (of course, falsely). his existence is entrusted to those around him. 

with a last final twist, waking ned devine drives home the point that we are who we surround ourselves with, which often means what’s best for you is what’s best for your community.

i strongly recommend this movie and the last scene never fails to make me cry tears of happiness and sentimentality. 

xoxo

koala butterfly

waking ned devine, 1998