Irish Jam(2006)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

Over time, Jimmy (Eddie Griffin) starts to develop a romantic relationship with Maureen (Anna Friel), and he also develops a close bond with her daughter, Kathleen (Tallulah Pitt-Brown), who hasn’t spoken a word since she and her father, Frank, got into a car crash with a drunk driver five years ago that resulted in Frank dying in her arms. He also learns through Maureen, Kathleen, and the people of Ballywood about the importance of being himself instead of always having to act like some slick, big-mouthed hustler, and he gains a sense of belonging for the first time in his life. However, he still has enemies in the form of the McNulty brothers – Tony (Tony Maudsley), Malachy (James Bradshaw), and Sean (Nevan Finegan) – and their boss, Lord Hailstock (Kevin McNally).

Seeking to get Jimmy kicked out as the landlord of Finnigan’s Pub so he can acquire it and then begin with his plans for his Leprechaun Land amusement park (which has now devolved into a plot to scam €20 million from the €90 million investment that Suzuki [Togo Igawa] and Yamamoto [Frankie Keung] – the wealthy Japanese industrialists – made towards the park, with him keeping €10 million of it in the end, after he earlier received [and hid] a surveyor’s report stating that the land Ballywood is situated on is a bog and thus completely unsuitable for building the park on), Hailstock has his servant, Pettikreep (Vass Anderson), contact some people he knows in Los Angeles and tell them to look for any incriminating information about Jimmy that he can use against him. His contacts manage to find out that, not only is Jimmy a scam artist, but the poem he submitted that won him Finnigan’s Pub was created with lyrics that he stole from a song by rap singer Dirty Dime. Now knowing that Jimmy has a weakness for money, Hailstock has Pettikreep call him up and make him a substantial offer on selling the pub to him, and Jimmy tells Pettikreep that he is open to doing this.

Some nights later, Pettikreep gives all of Jimmy’s information to the McNultys, and the following day, the McNultys go to the town’s church and show off the evidence of Jimmy’s true character and his act of plagiarism to the congregation. They all then march over to Finnigan’s, and Tony calls Jimmy out while he is entertaining Maureen, Kathleen, and the patrons present there. After Jimmy and the pubgoers step outside, the McNultys tell Jimmy about what they discovered regarding his poem, then Tony orders him to pack up and get out of Ballywood now. Jimmy confesses to all that he did indeed steal Dirty Dime’s song, but then Tony asks him if it is also true that he intends to sell Finnigan’s to Hailstock. Jimmy beats around the bush with his answer until Tony threatens to knock the truth out of him like he did a while back, basically admitting that he and his brothers were the mystery assailants who ambushed and beat up Jimmy some nights ago. Jimmy tells Tony that he can kiss his butt, prompting Tony to start giving him a beating all around the town square. However, after Jimmy sees Kathleen silently encourage him to fight back, he puts Tony down with a couple of good punches, and Maureen and Father Duffy (Tom Georgeson) then defend him from Malachy and Sean by laying them both out with a single punch. However, when one of the townspeople asks Jimmy if he really did sell out to Hailstock, Hailstock shows up and acknowledges the silent Jimmy and chuckles, confirming Jimmy’s guilt. Maureen curses Jimmy for treating Ballywood like a get-rich-quick scheme and bringing about its end before telling him to go to hell and running off with Kathleen, and moments later, all of the other villagers turn their backs on him and leave his presence. Later that night, Jimmy packs up his belongings, intending to leave Ireland for good, and he mails the deed to Finnigan’s to Maureen.

Early the next morning, the McNultys visit Hailstock at his mansion to report that an urgent meeting is going on with the villagers at Finnigan’s, but the topic of discussion is a secret. As Hailstock wonders what it is about, he suddenly gets a message on his laptop that shows a live transaction of Leprechaun Land’s corporate account, and then he watches in shock as the €100 million in it mysteriously and rapidly depletes to nothing. Meanwhile, as all the townspeople are at Finnigan’s wondering why they are there so early, they are paid a visit from Suzuki and Yamamoto, and they are carrying a laptop with them. After opening it up on the bar for all to see, they upload a live webcam stream that has just started between Jimmy and Hailstock. Jimmy tells Hailstock that he was responsible for emptying the account, then goes on to explain that he, Suzuki, and Yamamoto have learned from a mole in Hailstock’s inner circle that the land in Ballywood is unsuitable for building on and that Hailstock stashed a surveyor’s report saying as much (and likely also told them about Hailstock’s scam against Suzuki and Yamamoto). Jimmy points out to Hailstock that this constitutes fraud, but then he tells him that, rather than see him get put behind bars for 20 years, he is going to offer him a deal: In exchange for walking away clean and getting his balance transferred back to his account, Hailstock must give the €10 million he pocketed back to Suzuki and Yamamoto, and he must also return the money that the villagers paid him for the poetry contest. Then, he must sign over Ballywood and all the surrounding land to its people as well. Pettikreep then reveals that he is the mole when he gives Hailstock the ownership transfer agreement to sign, and also, to ensure that Hailstock fully cooperates with this, Pettikreep shows that he has a disc containing a copy of the surveyor’s report that is addressed to Hailstock. After Hailstock signs the papers, Jimmy tells him to never come back and then signs off. Hailstock orders the McNultys to find Jimmy and put a stop to him now, but they renounce their allegiance to him and leave. Pettikreep then tells Hailstock that he can take his job and shove it before tossing a travel magazine about California onto his desk and declaring that he has a plane to catch.

Before the webcam stream logs off at Finnigan’s, Maureen and Kathleen notice that Jimmy is on the beach where the boat comes to take people to and from the mainland. After finding out that the next boat departs in five minutes, Maureen runs like the wind down to the harbor and gets Jimmy’s attention before he can step aboard. Jimmy tells her that, for a moment, he thought he had something good going on with her and Kathleen, but now he believes that he was just fooling himself. He then tells her that he feels that the villagers have never truly accepted him because they are afraid, deep down, of who he is and what they think he represents, and he didn’t disappoint them in the end because he pulled off the scam of a lifetime. He then tells her that he is going back to Los Angeles and returning to the life of a scam artist, but Maureen tries to get him to understand that that kind of life is not worth returning to because it is an endless and empty one. She then tells him that he ought to stay because he has nothing to lose and he can’t keep on running, and here, people love him just the way he is. She then declares her own love for him before tearfully begging him to not leave, but he appears to be unmoved. Just then, the other villagers rush in, and they all implore Jimmy to stay, even the McNultys. Suddenly, Kathleen breaks her silence, telling Jimmy that her father left her and that she doesn’t want him to leave her, too. Moved to tears, Jimmy decides to stay in Ballywood and embraces Kathleen, and Maureen joins in on the embrace.

That winter, Jimmy and Maureen get married, and at the same time, Jimmy adopts Kathleen as his daughter (and we see Pettikreep in the audience with a younger girlfriend that he met in California). However, just after Jimmy and Maureen share their first kiss as husband and wife, Psycho (Mo’Nique) suddenly comes into the church, having managed to track Jimmy down and who is STILL determined to make him her husband. The movie then comes to an abrupt end.