There are life paths that defy even the most predictable script. Lindsay Lohan, who once embodied the youthful frenzy of the early 2000s, returns to the spotlight not as a faded echo of her past, but as someone who seems to have realized that true redemption doesn’t occur under the glare of stage lights, but in the quiet spaces between setbacks and recoveries. Her artistic resurgence, sparked by the recent wave of nostalgic remakes that revived hits like “Mean Girls”, finds in “Irish Wish” not a pinnacle, but a steady step in her symbolic reconstruction. Under the direction of Janeen Damian — with whom she had already developed a sense of trust in a previous project — the film becomes a safe haven where she can reactivate, with a touch of grace, the persona that once made her iconic: the woman on the brink of chaos, yet charming enough to turn stumbles into possibilities.
While the plot leans on genre clichés — a marriage of convenience, identity crisis, friendship strained by unresolved emotions — there is something in “Irish Wish” that resists slipping into formula. This might stem from Damian’s pragmatic direction, as she knows how to draw from Lohan just the right blend of humor and vulnerability, between cynical poise and emotional surrender. The director surrounds her lead with a solid cast, without ever displacing her from the narrative center. Kirsten Hansen’s script, though far from daring, grants Maddie Kelly a degree of complexity: a ghostwriter who silences her own voice in favor of someone else’s success, a woman who realizes too late that her love is about to marry another.
The comparison to “My Best Friend’s Wedding” is inevitable, but also telling. While P.J. Hogan’s classic balanced comedy with an undercurrent of melancholy, navigating between cynicism and romance with sharpness and nuance, “Irish Wish” plays things safer. It trades narrative boldness for a lightness bordering on the ethereal, punctuated by touches of magical realism that flirt with kitsch — such as the blooming tree under which Maddie impulsively makes her wish to a local patron saint. And yet, it’s precisely in this moment that the film clarifies its intent: not to reinvent the genre, but to find solace within its most familiar boundaries.
James Thomas, played by Ed Speleers, takes on an ambiguous yet functional role. More than Maddie’s romantic interest, he is the mirror through which she must see herself in order to rewrite her own story. Speleers, charismatic and restrained, brings balance to a narrative that might otherwise drift into shallow sentimentality. His performance gives the romantic comedy a more grounded tone, even if the film consistently sticks to well-worn paths. The chemistry between the leads, though conventionally constructed, sustains much of the emotional resonance of the experience.
Perhaps the film’s greatest strength lies in its refusal to pretend it’s more than it is. There’s a disarming honesty in its simplicity. Rather than hiding behind clever dialogue or intricate plot twists, “Irish Wish” embraces familiarity as a form of power — returning to old themes with gentler, more forgiving eyes. There’s no ambition for radical originality — and maybe that’s precisely what makes it compelling. In an era saturated with ironic detachment and meta-narratives, the film seems to whisper: there is still beauty in stories told with tenderness, even when we already know where they’re going.
At its core, “Irish Wish” is less about romantic love than it is about the discomfort of facing oneself when all the distractions fall away. Maddie, her insecurities carefully disguised as professional competence, learns that love demands not only courage, but surrender — not of her dreams, but of the distorted version of herself built on silent compromises. In that sense, the romantic comedy takes on an existential breath, even if within safe confines. And maybe that’s where its relevance lies: not in offering groundbreaking answers, but in gently reminding us that between an impulsive wish and an unexpected reunion, there’s still room for quiet — and deeply human — new beginnings.
Film: Irish Wish
Director: Janeen Damian
Year: 2024
Genres: Comedy/Romance
Rating: 7/10