WORDS Brian Wade

There’s been a bit of a purple patch for Irish comedy of late, what with the warm global reception of intriguing horror-romp Grabbers along with outstanding success of John Martin McDonagh’s The Guard, now the highest-grossing Irish indie of all time. Aiming to bank in on that success is The Stag, John Butler’s bromance detailing the happenings of a makeshift bachelor do in the Wicklow Mountains. Sounds like The Hangover, but don’t let that fool you: that’s as far as comparisons with that US knockout go in this tepid and unsatisfying effort.

For all the ingenuity of wit and humour that trademarks Irish cinema, it’s bizarre to see a comedy so blatantly unoriginal as this, unabashedly borrowing from every decent American comedy of the past few years and inefficiently spinning it with a bit of homegrown charm. Dragging along a stringy and unengaging narrative, The Stag feels less like a feature film and more a series of weak sketches, its superficially liberal agenda (MDMA makes a cameo) desperately trying to conceal its complete lack of invention. You’ve got to feel sorry for the laudable Andrew Scott who makes the most of a woefully mis-hitting script in his role as best man Davin, the only mark of poignancy in a film of heftily-traced emotion. With such an array of talent onboard, Amy Huberman and Peter McDonald among them, one can only wallow in disappointment and wonder what might have been.

Grade III