The Closer You Get (2000)
Irish lads send an ad to the Miami Herald inviting fit and enticing women, between the ages of 20 and 21, to live in their isolated Donegal village. The whole town knows about the ad, and it sharpens everyone's sense of the opportunities for happiness already at hand. Kate, a publican with a young daughter, is separating from her husband and catches the eye of a bachelor sheep farmer. Kieran the butcher realizes that his assistant Siobhan is comely, and then he discovers she's fiery as well. Ollie sends off for Dutch skin magazines that the village postmistress won't release to him. The men, and women, find counsel in their movie-loving priest. Will anyone answer the ad?
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Truly Dreadful Film
To me, this movie is perfection.
The acting in this movie is really good.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
This movie is a movie I always come back to! It's funny and so relatable, coming from a small town myself! The music is wonderful and absolutely ties the movie together! Just love this film!!
A very dissapointing film that began with so much promise. The premise was certainly there but the talent wastn´t!. Maybe the director thought we would all be laughing so much that we wouldn´t realise how awful the film was. O.K., we had some beautiful Irish scenery and some potentially wonderful characters, but the movie just didn´t gel after the first twenty minutes or so. These characters were so isolated and desperate for women that they advertised in an American newspaper for female company in their village. One guy is so frustrated that he sends off to Amsterdam for what appears to be a crateload of adult material to educate himself in the ways of the world. Nothing wrong with that, but not to know all the intricacies of the birds and the bees at his age!. And even then it wastn´t even remotely funny. I could hark on about the awfulness of this movie but I won´t bother. It really doesn´t merit comment.
This is a film that is very easy to relate to for somebody who grew up living in a small Australian town. Overall, the film is quite a clever play on a simple story line, and it makes you wonder why this theme wasn't explored or performed years ago. The only character in the film who seems oddly out of place is "Pat" (Ewan Stewart). You have to ask why a former Scottish Football Star would end up running a pub in an out of the way Irish fishing village? Again the character "Pat" provides the only sad note in the film as he splits from his screen wife as a result of his filandering ways. His wife played by Niamh Cussack, plays a lead in the film, but is not without some blame for the split in the marriage. Through the film there is the suggestion of romantic interest in another of the lead characters. Other notable moments in the film that tickled my funny bone are when "Ollie" describes his desire to local Post Mistress to, "take a woman to the celestial heavens and worship her", and those "Church Bells". Overall, I had a really good kack when I saw this film in the cinema. Comedy films aren't generally meant to make you think, they are more meant to entertain. "American Women" or "The Closer You Get" definately entertains. I've certainly seen a lot worse low budget comedies, and for that matter, I've certainly seen some real shockers that have been made on a high budget. The "Closer You Get" is definately good value for money.
This is a wonderfully sensitive and human film, well scripted, well acted, superbly directed. And so what if the women come out as the winners. It's a delightful story of sexual awakening, done in a charming, cheeky Irish style. Provocative yet tasteful. Funny yet serious. One of those rare films in which everything works!