Lottery Script Is A Loser -- Kelly-Bannen Chemistry Salvages `Ned Devine'

Movie review XX 1/2 "Waking Ned Devine," with Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan, Susan Lynch, James Nesbitt, Robert Hickey. Directed and written by Kirk Jones. 91 minutes. Seven Gables. "PG" - Parental guidance advised because of subject matter.

An unwieldy, self-conscious mixture of "Local Hero," "Weekend at Bernie's" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," this British comedy about Irish greed is being promoted and widely applauded as an art-house sleeper hit in the tradition of "The Full Monty."

But "Waking Ned Devine" communicates little of that film's humanity and easy charm; the script's similar attempt to create a gallery of supporting-character rogues largely fizzles. It's worth seeing chiefly for the odd-couple pairing of Ian Bannen and David Kelly, who make the most of their near-vaudevillian roles as aging pals who try to win a lottery the hard way.

The retired Jackie O'Shea (Bannen) and the widowed Michael O'Sullivan (Kelly) have discovered that someone in their tiny village, Tulaigh Morh, has won the Irish National Lottery. While Jackie's exasperated wife Annie (Fionnula Flanagan) fumes, they ply the likely suspects with food and drink.

Among them: a smelly hog farmer, Pig Finn (James Nesbitt); his cheeky single-mother lover, Maggie Tooley (Susan Lynch); and the local witch, Lizzie Quinn (Eileen Dromey). It's all for naught.

It turns out that the winning ticket belongs to a corpse: Ned Devine (Jimmy Keogh), who died from a heart attack when he found out that he'd won 6 million pounds.

Jackie convinces Michael that he can successfully impersonate Ned when the lottery authorities come to town, and the money will be theirs. The townspeople, promised part of the loot, join in the conspiracy.

However, Jackie and Michael are skinny-dipping in the ocean when the lottery official approaches Ned's place. In a hurry to get there first, the naked Michael leaves his clothes, jumps on a motorcycle and rides to the cottage, where predictable farcical complications take over.

Under first-time writer-director Kirk Jones, the Irish stereotypes are thicker than any brogue, the small-town eccentricities are spelled out in condescending capital letters, and the cute naked-old-man-on-the-motorcycle episode is milked for all its "Full Monty" resonance.

The fact that the nudity doesn't make a lot of sense in story terms is tossed aside. Wouldn't Michael/Ned's lack of clothes make the lottery man suspicious? It's as contrived and gratuitous as the script's final, brutal coup-de-grace for one meddlesome character who's clearly in the way of the plot.

Old pros that they are, the Scottish Bannen and the Dublin-born Kelly (previously best-known for his role on "Fawlty Towers") creatively rise above the nonsense, especially in a faked funeral scene that recalls Mark Twain.

This marks the first time they've worked together, yet they're as comfortable in their on-screen relationship as Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who will no doubt be starring in the American remake any day now.