Dull plot, predictability weaken 'Magical World of Leprechauns'

Romeo is a Leprechaun, Juliet, a fairy, and basically you have the plot of "The Magical World Of Leprechauns," a two part mini-series that aired on NBC Sunday and Monday nights. Randy Quaid, a disillusion citified New Yorker, Jack Wood, comes to Ireland to exploit the land and falls in love with a Irish bathing beauty. He later saves Seamus Muldoone's life, and the "head" of the Leprechauns befriends him. Whoopi Goldberg makes a couple of cameos as the Grand Banshee who lives in the Hotel Splendide and curls her hair. (If Goldberg's affiliation with this banal story surprises anyone, remember she was in "Theodore Rex.")

The central conflicts of the narrative are thematically related. The star-crossed lovers and the lovers separated by national identity and priorities both struggle to find harmony and unity in a prejudiced world. After a buggy race, Jack proves himself to Kathleen and they begin a love-affair despite her brothers' strong disapproval. The long-standing feud between the Fairies and the Leprechauns escalates into a full-blown war after Mickey Muldoone and his friends transgress societal boundaries by attending the Fairy ball. Mickey and Princess Jessica fall in love, Mickey kills her cousin, Grogin, and the families go to war despite the Grand Banshee's warning that the feuding must end.

The first part of the mini series ends as the war begins, and Kathleen and Jack begin fighting over his return to New York and his assignment to exploit the land in Ireland. Since the war preoccupies the Fairies, they are not able to regulate nature while they are fighting, and violent storms rage, paralleling the emotional turmoil the characters are experiencing. This metaphor works narratively and visually, and it is one of the better elements of the story.

In the second part, the war brings Kathleen and Jack back together as they help Jessica and Mickey end the conflict. There are original moments when the Leprechaun and Fairy Queens bond by discussing their husbands' inability to take instruction, adding flavor and depth to the weak, pirated plot line.

Is it any surprise that by faking their deaths, the lovers end the war? Ultimately, the story is about tolerance. The conflict nearly destroys Mother Nature, and the Grand Banshee makes them emphatically declare their desire for peace before she will bring the lovers back to life. It's TV! What did you expect? The lovers can't die! Even Jack and Kathleen get married.

Despite the shortcomings of the plot, the art direction is aesthetically pleasing, and the dance sequences are well-choreographed and entertaining. The Leprechaun tap dancers and the Folksie Irish music add nice regional flavor to the story, while the contemporary music at the Fairy ball is out of place and ruins the ethereal mood of the gala. "Leprechauns" has fleeting moments of interest, but the predictability factor, acceptable in a more comedic genre, hurts the story.

11-11-99