Not often does a film come along that manages to pull of the perfect meld of idyllic scenery, good small town folk with their cutesy language, and friendship and honor above greed and avarice.

Waking Ned Devine is such a film!

Probably best described as cute. It was a nice take on friendship and generosity winning out over animosity and greed.

As a kid you hear the story of a group of people who find a bag of money and decide to split it evenly. But they grow suspicious of one another and, whatever the version, it never ends well.

This movie seemed like an optimistic version of that childhood cautionary tale.

Maybe “charming” is an over-used term for Irish films, but, hey, what can I say. It’s true. Waking Ned Devine focuses on two older buddies who discover that someone in their small village has won the lottery. In their search for the town’s new millionaire, they discover that the winner (Ned Devine) died from the shock. So they hatch a plan to “fool the lotto man” so that they can cash in. The plan requires the cooperation of the entire village. Of course, wackiness ensues.