Skip or stream: ‘Wild Mountain Thyme,’ ‘Ammonite,’ ‘Prom’ and ‘Wolfwalkers’ – The Patriot Ledger

Dana Barbuto|The Patriot Ledger

COVID cases are surging in Massachusetts and the state is instituting restrictions, including closing movie theaters in Boston, Somerville and Newton. That means its a return to quaran-stream. Here are four new movies a romantic comedy, a splashy movie-musical, a forbidden love story and an animated adventure to enjoy from the cozy comfort of your couch. Skip or stream? Read and find out:

WILD MOUNTAIN THYME:Instead of smiling, Irish eyes will be rolling - right out of your head -during the latest romantic comedy from writer-director John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck). He pens a script so fizzy with stilted dialogue and Irish stereotypes youll choke on your Guinness. In a nutshell: Childhood friends Anthony Reilly (Jamie Dornan) and Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt) reside on neighboring farms. The two are clearly met for each other but wont acknowledge their feelings. Theyre forced to face the music when Anthonys father (Christopher Walken) threatens to leave the family farm to his American nephew (Jon Hamm) because Anthony, whos a bit off-kilter, wont settle down and find a wife. Its a leap of faith to believe that Blunts sassy (she smokes a pipe) lass with luxurious ginger hair cant land the handsome lad next door. But, alas, thats the push-pull of a shamelessly predictable tale spewing blarney in a late-inning revelation thats a bit of a head-scratcher. Blunt and Dornan manage to be appealing but Shanleys adaptation of his Broadway play, Outside Mullingar, squanders whatever spark they ignite. An unintentionally hilarious Walken is a bright spot. Ditto for Blunts singing of the Irish folk tune from which the film draws its title. If nothing more, theres the gorgeous Irish countryside of County Mayo to ogle as our collective COVID-ridden isolation becomes ever longer. (PG-13 for some thematic elements and suggestive comments. Available via video on demand. Grade: B-)

AMMONITE:Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan generate heat as lovers in writer-director Francis Lees fact-based 19th-century romantic drama about a paleontologist who falls for the younger woman left in her charge. You could call it the second coming of last years sumptuous Portrait of a Lady on Fire. But Ammonite is lesser in terms of passion and steamy sensuality. The palette is all gray and brown and the ambiance is cold and dusty. Oscar buzz deservedly swirls around Winslets performance as Mary Anning, a woman whose scientific contributions were largely ignored. In fact, some of her fossil discoveries are displayed in London museums under a mans name.Mary spends her days combing through rocks along the shore of her tiny English village in West Dorset, where she lives in a sparse cottage with her sickly mother (Gemma Jones). The script deposits an unhappily married Charlotte Murchison (Ronan) on her doorstep and from there forbidden love takes hold. The movie aims to be a study of repressed female desire and gender inequalities in both marriage and the scientific world. The problem is that the plot doesnt really work toward anything. Set over six weeks time, the story is predictable from the onset. At first, the women rebuff each other. Then it's stolen glances, hands accidentally touching, until ultimately the corsets come off during a candlelit tryst. Fiona Shaw gives a nice turn as Marys first lover. (R for graphic sexuality, some graphic nudity and brief language. Available via video on demand. Grade: B)

THE PROM:With all its pageantry and pomp, the high school prom of all events is ripest for movie-musical treatment. Ryan Murphys (Glee) campy comedy is an adaptation of the 2018 Broadway production about four down-on-their-luck actors (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman and Andrew Rannells) attempting to rehabilitate their images by becoming celebrity activists. The plan is to help a lesbian teen (newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman) defeat the bigots in small-town Indiana barring her from attending the school prom with her closeted girlfriend (Ariana DeBose). Keegan-Michael Key plays the high school principal and Kerry Washington accentuates the villainy as the homophobic PTA president. Some of the songs are catchy, with Rannells Love Thy Neighbor and Kidmans Zazz standing out. The star-studded cast is game for anything, which elevates the material. Each star gets his or her own big number. It's a nice change of pace to see Streep (Mamma Mia!) and Kidman (Moulin Rouge!) tap back into their song and dance skills. Streep is a trip as a washed up diva and Kidman endears as the perpetual chorus girl with a set of legs that wont quit. Rannells, a Tony nominee for Book of Mormon, lends Broadway street cred. Cordens leading man, Barry, is comprised of every gay theater stereotype imagined. The Prom is a wry skewering of the theater world and it also takes aim at the conservative heartland. It's chock full of pretty dresses, an ensemble cast of attractive actors and toe-tapping music. Ultimately, the film delivers a progressive message about tolerance and being kind to each other and thats hard to throw shade at.(PG-13 for thematic elements, some suggestive/sexual references and language. Streaming on Netflix. Grade: B-)

WOLFWALKERS:If you dig visually stunning animated movies with as much substance as style, then hit play on this 100-minute Celtic fantasy adventure from Oscar-nominated Irish animator Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea). Working from a script by Will Collins, Moore co-directs with Ross Stewart, telling the story of Robyn (voiced by Honor Kneafsey), a headstrong English girl traveling to the medieval Irish countryside with her father (Sean Bean), a great hunter summoned by the Lord Protector to kill a pack of threatening wolves. Magic and mayhem ensue after Robyn befriends Mebh (Eva Whittaker), a mysterious fire-haired free spirit possessing the power of a girl at wake and a wolf at night. (PG for sequences of violence and peril, scary images, some thematic elements and brief language. Streaming on Apple +; Grade B+)

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Skip or stream: 'Wild Mountain Thyme,' 'Ammonite,' 'Prom' and 'Wolfwalkers' - The Patriot Ledger

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero