Butler's Cinema Scene

Eddie Izzard

“WHISKEY GALORE”  My rating: C+

98 minutes | No MPAA rating

Fueled by whimsey, a genuine feel for Scottish village life and cast with a small army of familiar Brit character actors, “Whiskey Galore” wants to capture some of the droll charm of “Local Hero” or “The Englishman Who Went  Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.”

But something’s missing.

This remake of 1949’s “Whiskey Galore” (regarded by many as a classic English comedy) looks good and, thanks to a soundtrack of Celtic folk music, sounds good.

But once the initial charm wears off — about 20 minutes in — the picture (Peter McDougall wrote it; Gilles McKinnon directed) bogs down in a sort of desultory sameness.

World War II has bypassed the tiny Scottish island of Todday, where life goes on pretty much as it has for the last century. But the war is about to hit Todday where it hurts.

“The island is dry,” solemnly announces the publican as he pours the last of his stock of whiskey.

“It’s been a terrible war,” laments one old barfly who exits the pub, lies down on the cobblestones and promptly expires from lack of drink. Before long every citizen wears a hangdog expression and is snapping at his fellows.

“It’s the whiskey drought,” someone explains.

Naomi Battrick, Ellie Kendrick

But God looks out for the residents of Todday.  A freighter runs around on rocks just off the island; the captain and crew abandon ship, but before catching a boat back to England reveal that in the hold of their stranded ship are 50,000 cases of New York- bound whiskey.

Bound by a common cause, the locals raid the abandoned ship in the dead of night, rowing away with as many bottles as they can before she goes down for the last time.

This bit of theft (or is it salvage?) fiercely irritates the local home guard commander, a self-important and inept twit portrayed by Eddie Izzard.  He’s determined to find the liquor and punish the miscreants.

Meanwhile the windfall of spirits makes possible a betrothal ceremony for the two daughters (Naomi Battrick, Ellie Kendrick) of the local postmaster (Gregor Fisher). One of the girls is engaged to Sgt. Odd (Sean Biggerstaff), the man who actually makes the Home Guard work. The other to the local school teacher (Kevin Guthrie), who must contend with his domineering harridan of a mother, who treats him as if he were still 10 years old.

There’s the usual collection of eccentric locals.

It’s hard to dislike “Whiskey Galore,” but enthusiasm is in equally short supply.  This one feels like a missed opportunity.

| Robert W. Butler