Keith first wrote “”Love in Kilnerry” as a play, workshopping it at the Manhattan Theatre Club before turning it into the film — which he also produced and directed in addition to starring in. On film, it retains a lot of that community theater vibe in its set up jokes and its acting — which all seems dialed up 10 percent too exaggerated from all hands involved (a probable fault of the directing).
One of the weirdest aspects of “Love in Kilnerry” is the feud between the mayor, a whiny barkeep with a grudge (Tony Triano) and the local preacher (James Patrick Nelson). It’s hard to believe two leading town pillars would maintain such a silly feud — especially when one is a man of the cloth. Nonetheless there is a pointless boxing match between the two (though it seems one man is much older than the other). It all seems not very thought through.
And what about that setting? The film got a lot of cooperation from the scenic seaside town of Portsmouth, N.H., but then they dropped in what look like the Rocky Mountains behind it — where exactly does that kind of terrain occur? It wouldn’t be fitting if the work was still set in Ireland either.
The only real laughs in the film are provided by the hapless EPA official (Rakesh Nibhanupudi) who seems allowed to improv his way through his speeches.
“Love in Kilnerry” benefits from a big, movie-esque score with jaunty strings and tinkly piano from Randy Edelman, a BAFTA Film nominee who previously scored movies from “The Last of the Mohicans” to “Anaconda.” With the brisk cinematography of J. Eric Camp and Jon Mercer make it seem like an actual film — or maybe a Hallmark film — except one with occasional BDSM dungeon scene.
Intent on keeping a wholesome-but-naughty approach that made films like “The Full Monty” so successful, it still is an awkward mix – with crass jokes at punchlines and odd scenes of alley fornication the sheriff tries to break up.
Lawn gnomes are twisted into various sexual positions and there’s an orgy scene that involves more masks than seduction.
Maybe kids are too busy drinking soda instead of water, but P-172 seems to have little or no effect on the town’s young or underaged people. Or maybe this is a commentary on the lack of young people in these small towns. The main point is that the old people are all feeling frisky — and that notion alone is meant to be enough to cause giggles.
And so: prudes become libertines. Love blooms among old cranks. The pastor becomes a nudist. What might once have been card parties are now orgies. I don’t even want to know what happened to pickleball.
It’s all written in a style like old “Tonight” show monologues, full of raised eyebrows and leering innuendo that are both outdated and not particularly amusing.
Still: There is a charm, and the film is said to have done very well. Indeed, two other productions are being mounted internationally. In an odd form of promotion, 54 gifs from the movie have been used 100 million times on social media, say filmmakers, who claim it to be the longest-running indie film in theaters this year.
Which only proves people like this kind of winking wholesomeness and there may be further life for the film (even if it may never, say, be turned into a musical like “The Full Monty”).
“Love in Kilnerry” is showing in several cities and opened in Los Angeles Friday.