Waking Ned Devine
Waking Ned Devine is a 1998 comedy set in rural Ireland, but filmed on the Isle of Man.
Jackie O'Shea is a middle-aged man living in the rural Irish town of Tullymore with his wife, Annie. When they discover that someone local has won the lottery, they team up with Jackie's friend Michael to figure out which of their neighbors is soon to be much wealthier. The lucky man is the titular Ned Devine, who died from the shock of seeing the winning numbers. After speaking to Ned in a dream, Jackie decides to pretend to be Ned to collect their winnings. Needless to say, Hilarity Ensues once the lottery man arrives earlier than expected and Michael has to play Ned instead.
There's also Love Triangle amongst the residents who are closer to 30 years old than to 60 years old, and the two apparently youngest characters take a scene or two to talk about God and provide commentary on events.
Warning! Some of the following tropes are inherently spoileriffic.
- Attending Your Own Funeral
- Bittersweet Ending: Though it's a borderline Happy Ending.
- Black Comedy: Most notably Jackie and Micheal dealing with Ned's body and the car accident late in the movie.
- Burn the Witch: Played with: when Lizzy Quinn (oft called "the witch") refuses to play along, Michael claims that the town will burn her, as ominous music begins the background. Cut to a man lighting a match just outside her gate and looking threatening. Perhaps five seconds later, the music changes to a lighthearted tune, and it's revealed that the man is the first of a group of villagers bearing gifts to sway Lizzy to their side.
- Chekhov's Gun: The payphone on the road out of town and the imminent return of the original minister are both important elements of the resolution. Additionally, the lotto man's hay fever has a small role to play late in the movie.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Lizzy Quinn is a rather unsympathetic case.
- Dies Wide Open: Ned's eyes are of the "completely open" variety when Jackie finds his body. Jackie doesn't actually bother closing them.
- Disappeared Dad: Only Maggie knows who Maurice's father is; as a result, Maurice has never had a proper father figure, though Finn wants the responsibility.
- Kick the Dog: Every last one of Lizzy's scenes.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Maggie won't tell Finn if he's Maurice's father. At the end of the movie, she finally tells Jackie that the father is Ned Devine.
- Maintain the Lie: Initially, only Jackie has to pretend that Michael is actually Ned, but eventually the whole town has to play along.
- May-December Romance
- Meaningful Funeral: Ned's funeral is one of the few things not played for laughs. When the lotto man arrives, Jackie's eulogy makes the funeral meaningful in a whole new way. The humor comes back when everyone leaves the church.
- Naked People Are Funny: Naked old men swimming? Not funny. Naked old man on a motorbike trying to beat the lottery man to Ned's cottage so he can impersonate Ned? Very funny.
- Obfuscating Disability
- Posthumous Character: Ned Devine, who we learn about primarily through Jackie's dream and Maggie's final lines.
- Power Trio: Jackie, Michael, and Annie.
- The Smart Guy: Dennis Fitzgerald, who repairs household appliances, realizes that Jackie can't deposit the check for Ned's winnings, and figures out how to get the money anyway.
- Talking in Your Dreams: Jackie seems to have a conversation with Ned's spirit in a dream after Jackie finds the winning lotto ticket.
- Third Line, Some Waiting: The lottery plot is the focus of the story, but the Love Triangle between Finn, Maggie, and Pat also takes a considerable portion of the time. Maurice and the replacement priest occasionally discuss matters on their own, but their talks never further the plot in any way and never get the attention of the other two subplots.
- Verbing Nouny