Synopsis
The story of the inhabitants of the isolated Scottish island of Todday, in the Outer Hebrides, where gloom sets in as their wartime rationing of whisky runs out. When cargo ship the SS Cabinet Minister runs aground the shrewd islanders run rings around the buffoonish English Home Guard commander Captain Waggett and conspire to hide away cases of the precious amber nectar.
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Cast
- Gregor FisherMacroon
- Eddie IzzardCaptain Wagget
- Naomi BattrickPeggy Macroon
- Ellie KendrickCatriona Macroon
- Sean BiggerstaffSergeant Odd
- Kevin GuthrieGeorge Campbell
- James CosmoMacalister the Minister
- Fenella WoolgarDolly Waggett
- Michael NardoneBrown
- John SessionsDoctor McLaren
Recommendations
- 70
Village Voice
Instead of glorifying the amber liquid, Whisky Galore! is a love letter to an isolated community trapped in amber. - 60
Los Angeles Times
Granted, there’s not much reason to watch this Whisky Galore! so long as the 1949 version still exists. But it’s clear that everyone involved with this production had genuine affection for the material and for the very idea of old Scotland as a genteel utopia populated by kindly tippler - 50
Variety
Oddly stiff where Alexander Mackendrick’s original village farce was infectiously tipsy, Gillies MacKinnon’s interpretation is twee, tweedy and rather timid about putting its own stamp on a now-quaint story. - 40
Time Out London
Directed by Gillies MacKinnon, this new version lacks the mischief of the original and feels like a sluggish museum piece. - 40
The Guardian
It comes across as twee, comfy-cardigan film-making. And, Eddie Izzard’s best efforts notwithstanding, it simply isn’t very funny. - 40
CineVue
A dry and surprisingly dull film, it is a comedy which doesn't induce a single laugh and a drama that doesn't engage emotionally or pull on the heartstrings at all. - 30
The New York Times
Gone is the original’s joyful sense of mischief; what’s left is an inoffensive piece of twaddle that never fully appreciates the ineluctable bond between community spirit and a drop of the hard stuff.
