Kirk Jones
Svegliati Ned

Kirk Jones wrote and directed Waking Ned (1998), his debut film which earned 30 times the budget he had available, after a long apprenticeship in directing commercials. And Waking Ned is a little gem, for acting, natural scenery, timing, and originality. Mind you, nothing to do with the masterpieces already -so originally- reviewed on these pages, but still a thoroughly enjoyable hour-and-a-half entertainment. Set in Tullymore in Southern Ireland (but filmed entirely on the Isle of Man), it tells of a sensational scam devised by Jackie O'Shea and Michael O'Sullivan (Ian Bannen and David Kelly) with the complicity of all the villagers at the expense of the national lotteries.

Jackie and Michael find out from the newspapers that a large lottery sum has been won in their small town, and they set out to discover who the lucky winner is, curious but also eager to ingratiate themselves with him and become even better friends. A leftover portion of chicken during the dinner offered by Jackie to his 52 fellow villagers leads him to suspect that the winner is Ned Devine, an elderly fisherman who lives a bit out of the way. Jackie, by night, goes to Ned's house to bring him the portion of chicken he deserves and finds him dead, sitting in front of the television with the winning ticket in hand and a blissful smile on his face. Jackie and Michael at first contemplate a solo scam, then, with the help of Ned who appears in a dream to Jackie and frightened by the need for the lottery man, meanwhile contacted, to ask some questions in town to be sure that Michael-Ned is really Ned, they involve the entire citizenry in the fraudulent plan. A hateful old paralytic (but are we sure?...) puts a spoke in their wheel, demanding more than her share (the 52nd part of 7 million and a bit of pounds) because she knows that if she reported the scam to the lotteries she would get 10% of the extorted winnings. The threats of the old witch do not scare them and she is left to simmer in her own juice, convinced that she cannot harm. Among a pig farmer in love but rejected because, despite the fruit soaps, he smells bad, a Pirandellian funeral oration, a single mother whom we will not understand what she has to do with it until the end, and a priest driving a bus with the inscription "I Love Lourdes," motorcycle rides in underwear and without and rivers of dark beer, the story unravels to the finale, very fast-paced in the editing, with a double surprise. You always smile, and bursts of laughter cannot be held back in some scenes.  

P.S. The motorcycle ride up and down the island is a tribute to the legendary Tourist Trophy of motorcycling that takes place on the Isle of Man every year, and which saw in 1967 our Giacomo Agostini and his worthy companion Mike Hailwood run what is remembered as the most beautiful Grand Prix in the history of two wheels.