Closer You Get Movie Review

An amusing but forgettable, light rural comedy from Ireland, the generically titled "The Closer You Get" is another aren't-men-adorable-dimwits satire, about the lonely lads of a craggy coastal hamlet who concoct a inept plan to import sexy American girls for courting.

With most of the local gals unavailable or uninterested, this desperate lot of paunchy, pasty, ruddy Irishmen (lead by Ian Hart, "Backbeat") buy a classified in the Miami Herald advertising for marriage-minded, "attractive girls 20 to 21." Then they smarten themselves up as best they can and start a daily stakeout at the bus stop just outside town, anticipating the arrival of interested parties.

Of course, its a foredrawn conclusion that none show up and the men will pair off with local lassies after all -- but only after becoming jealous when the likable village women conspire to mock them by romancing a gypsy-like band of seasonal Spanish fishermen.

Along the way, first-time director Aileen Ritchie offers up a respectable number of laughs (the screening audience enjoyed it more than I did) but few stimulating characters, as these nondescript small town folks (sad sack sheep farmer, virgin plumber) mostly sit around the pub with their hands in their laps. "The Closer You Get" is a movie badly in need of a couple eccentrics.