Spoilers are ahead for Wild Mountain Thyme, you’ve been warned!
Wild Mountain Thyme is the kind of cozy romance that’s perfectly accompanied with some hot tea and a couple of cookies on a cold night. It whisks audiences away to the Irish countryside to the world of Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan’s Rosemary Muldoon and Anthony Reilly, a pair of neighboring farmers who have heart eyes for one another, but are keeping it real lowkey. But it’s the response to the Wild Mountain Thyme ending that is really driving some stinging conversation instead of its intended snuggle-up atmosphere.
The new release is based on a Broadway play written by John Patrick Shanley, who previously wrote Doubt, and later directed the highly-acclaimed movie with Meryl Streep and Viola Davis. Shanley is also the mind behind Moonstruck and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s first on-screen pairing in Joe Versus the Volcano. The latter feels especially important to note before we go into the wild ending for Wild Mountain Thyme. The underrated ‘90s movie was about Hanks’ character going to jump into a volcano to die after being diagnosed with “brain cloud” and meeting different love interests played by Ryan along the way. Check that one out, it’s better. But first, to the bizarre conclusion for his latest:
What Happened At The End Of Wild Mountain Thyme?
The kind-of sweeping romance revolves around Anthony Reilly’s family drama, when his dad, played by Christopher Walken, let’s him know that he’s not really into the idea of leaving his farm to him, despite him hanging around the farm all his life and talking to the donkeys and horses all the time. This takes Jamie Dornan’s character aback, because like who else is gonna pat them on the head like him, you know? It’s super sad because Walken’s reasoning is that his son is weird and awkward, which is made obvious throughout the film, but not in the way we realize by the end of Wild Mountain Thyme.
Throughout the movie, a beautiful and clearly head-over-heels Rosemary Muldoon confesses to the audience that she is in love with Anthony. They have been living next to each other for their entire lives and Rosemary even knows his angry old dad quite well. It seems like the only logical option for these two is to get hitched and have adorable kids together to play in their shared green fields. But, for some reason they decide to just live in less-than-blissful ignorance apart anyway. That is until Jon Hamm’s Adam drops in and starts hitting on Rosemary. Adam is the guy that’s supposed to possibly take on the farm and he’s certainly more direct.
To test out her options, she decides to fly all the way to New York for a single day to meet back up with Jon Hamm and see what city life is like. When she returns, she gets in a cute little fight with Anthony because sexual tension which leads to the ultimate reveal, he doesn’t think he is right for her because he thinks he’s a honeybee. Yes, a honeybee.
Why Does Jamie Dornan’s Anthony Reilly Think He’s A Bee?
I will point out a couple clues, easter eggs if you will, that lead to this big reveal. At the beginning of Wild Mountain Thyme Dornan does smell a flower and gets some pollen stuck in his nose. Then there’s a moment where Anthony asks why nature “made him so” out loud to said nature. So when he tells Emily Blunt’s Rosemary that he thinks he is a honeybee, she doesn’t really care. And in her own way, she’s been comparing herself to a swan the whole movie, “Swan Lake” was her go-to jam and theme song the whole time.
The reveal does account for some of his father’s reservations about his son about running the farm. Have you ever seen a honeybee own a farm? But, this isn’t something that he has been talking about around town. It’s a secret the pair now share, especially after he finally proposes to Rosemary and they live happily ever after.
The Internet Really Cannot Get Enough Of The ‘Twist’ Ending
If you spend some time on the internet, which, well you’re here, you may have heard some buzzing about the Wild Mountain Thyme ending because people can’t quit talking about it. There’s some big notions being discussed about it:
And as you’d probably expect, DreamWorks’ Bee Movie is getting some attention here, because well now they both share the bee-human romantic tension. Check out this edit:
And here’s someone else who loved the concept, but didn’t really agree with the execution. And given my own two-star review on the subject, I’ll have to agree here:
The point here is, it’s a fun movie to make fun of and discuss with people. The internet is really fueling the idea of it being a “wild” twist ending too, because in all honesty, when I watched Wild Mountain Thyme prior to the film’s release, I did not believe him when he said he was a honeybee. I thought it was more of a poetic, like “let’s share our spirit animals” type of thing.
Ok, But Let’s Get Serious Here About Wild Mountain Thyme
Let’s actually end by getting into that specially. Not to invalidate Anthony’s experience as a honeybee, there’s a lot of evidence that suggests that he is not an actual bee. First off, he looks like Jamie Dornan which is as human male as they come. And second, well he doesn’t run or fly around saying “buzz,’ so I mean case and point, right? I really do think it’s more of a metaphor about how he thinks of himself in comparison to Rosemary. Jamie Dornan has spoken about his character specifically, saying this to Variety:
Let’s be honest: Anthony is probably on the spectrum in some way. He is unlike anyone I’ve ever played, but he has insecurities and an oddness and quirks within him that I felt I definitely possessed myself. I loved the opportunity to show that off and really heighten and explore and exploit my own weirdness, which I have plenty.
With that in mind, I don’t think it’s really a “big ending twist” some people and publications are making it out to be to make it seem more interesting than it actually is. Anthony seems to really identify and feel most comfortable in nature, and therefore it would make sense for him to identify with an animal within his world, instead of say, admitting he’s a Scorpio or something. And Emily Blunt’s character does say she thinks she’s a swan. So it’s really not that weird. It’s just a really awkward movie with a lot of bad accents, so people are losing their minds by the end of it.
Anyway, that’s my take. What do you think of the Wild Mountain Thyme ending?
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