Over the weekend I watched Irish Wish, a new Netflix rom-com starring Lindsay Lohan. It has a poor 5.2/10 rating on IMDb, but I grew up watching Freaky Friday and Mean Girls and couldn't resist the latest Lohan-flick.
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The film hasn't been met with the best critical acclaim, with The Guardian giving it one star and saying "no cliché is left unturned."
The plot follows Maddie (Lindsay Lohan) who harbours a secret love for author Paul, for whom she edits. When Emma, one of Maddie's best friends, catches Paul's eye, leading to their engagement, Maddie suppresses her feelings and accompanies them to Ireland for the wedding. During a picnic, Maddie encounters a magical wishing bench and inadvertently wishes herself into the role of Paul's bride-to-be. Classic rom-com mix ups and antics ensue.
You might be wondering why we're talking about this on Gardens Illustrated.
Regardless of the plot of the movie, what stuck out to me most and what was impossible to ignore as a gardener was the laughable use of plants throughout the film. In a particularly excruciating scene where Maddie and her friends head down to the lake for a picnic and some boating, I was practically shouting at the TV.
"You can actually see the black plastic nursery pot"
As the group crosses an old stone bridge by Lough Tay, covered in lichen and surrounded by bracken, you can't fail to miss the dozens of blousy rudbeckias that have been planted, presumably in an effort to emulate wild flowers. They would be more at home in a late summer garden; not something you'd find lining the banks of an Irish lake. In a film where the characters constantly extol the beauty of Ireland, it's hard to understand why the producers felt the need to 'improve' upon the natural setting for this scene.
It only gets worse, as ten seconds later you can actually see the black plastic nursery pot, holding what looks like a persicaria, at a jaunty angle apparently sprouting from the mossy stone bridge walls. As her friends prepare for their row-boat excursion across the lake, swathes of rudbeckias surround them, growing between the marginal reeds and grasses.
As she wanders through the countryside, Maddie walks through gorse and bracken (so far so good) interplanted with crocosmia, verbena, more rudbeckias, Salvia 'Hot Lips' and what appears to be dahlias (oh dear). Perhaps Netflix was leaning in to the fairytale-like narrative, but I couldn't help but cringe seeing these garden cultivars posing as wild plants.
Given that it's supposed to be a magical moment, I can almost forgive the unidentifiable pink-blossom-filled tree under which she makes her wish that is the main plot arc, but it's hard not to notice that the other trees surrounding her appear to be wearing their late summer foliage.
Maybe I'm being too harsh on the creators of Irish Wish, after all it can't be easy to stay seasonal when filming schedules are so variable. I spoke to Amanda Honey, who has 20 years experience dressing sets with plants and flowers with her partner Phil.
"It is always such a challenge to be horticulturally correct because there are so many variables."
She said: "It is always such a challenge to be horticulturally correct because there are so many variables. Filming out of season, the tastes and requests of numerous members of the crew, what is called for in the script - the list is endless!"
"We have always felt that if we had been consulted earlier on at the design stage of production, we could have offered so much useful information which might have saved money and time - and made the set look better and more botanically correct."
With that in mind, perhaps I should cut the creators of Irish Wish some slack. However, at points it felt like the producers had gone out of their way for it to make no sense. In one of the most laughable TV moments I've seen in years, Maddie comes down to eat breakfast with the group and is told: "You have to try these local woodland strawberries, they're delicious," by her friend Heather, who is holding an enormous supermarket fruit - I'd love to know the woodland where strawberries like that grow.
In some ways you have to hope Netflix is doing this with a sense of irony, because the alternative lack of awareness is really quite depressing. Seasonal confusion is rife throughout the movie - after the infamous woodland strawberry breakfast, Maddie and Heather pick perfectly formed waxy apples from trees around Paul's family estate (filmed at Killruddery House in Country Wicklow) and carry them in baskets through a rose garden in full bloom. Whether it's meant to be June or September is anybody's guess.
"Whether it's meant to be June or September is anybody's guess."
Thankfully, from what I could see we were spared the indignity of a perpetually flowering wisteria being thrown into the mix, something that Netflix has been guilty of in the past in the hit show Bridgerton. Though, on that occasion, Netflix's creativity led to soaring searches for Wisteria after it was seen romantically framing the Bridgerton's front door, I highly doubt the same spike will be true for rudbeckias following Irish Wish.
Bridgerton is not the only other time that Netflix has made some horticulturally dubious decisions. In Ginny & Georgia, the characters talk about the poisonous plant Aconitum, while using an image of a blue Delphinium to illustrate it.
I realise this is not something that will ruffle everyone's feathers - but any gardener considering watching Irish Wish be warned - you're in for more laughs than you bargained for. Perhaps for Netflix, it is time to employ a horticultural advisor - you know where to find me.
