There’s an effect that music has on us, and sometimes it means everything.
Every once in a while, a film sneaks up on you.
You’ve never heard anything about it, you didn’t see a trailer, you never even heard it’s name uttered.
Until you did.
That’s how I discovered‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’.
I was listening to‘The John Campea Show’podcast, and they got to their Q&A section. During it, one of the ‘Qers’ added…
“By the way, just saw ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island. What an amazing little film! Too bad it didn’t get more attention in theaters!”
That guy wasn’t lying, you know.
He was being as square biz as square biz gets!
‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’stars Tim Key as‘Charles’,an retired, eccentric, lottery winner who now lives alone on Wallis Island, and has a special day planned where he wants to get his favorite musical act of all time‘McGwyer Mortimer’,back together one last time to play just for him – and he has all the money to make it happen.
There’s just one catch.
’McGwyer’, played by Tom Basden, and ‘Mortimer’, played by Carey Mulligan aren’t just former band mates, they used to be in love, and things ended poorly.
‘McGwyer’has no idea that‘Mortimer’is coming, and it turns out, she’s married now.
You’re gettin’ uncomfortable just reading that aren’t you?
Imagine, being stuck on an island, with an eccentric uber-fan who seems to know more about you than you know about you, and then your ex shows up with their new ‘you’that has a shiner build and much better operating system!
I know, right?
The cringe is upon us!
First let me say that Tom Key as‘Charles’is just brilliant in this film.
The innocence that he brings to his comic delivery is just pure magic.
He just wants everything to go perfectly, and he’s dizzy from being in the presence of his heroes.
It plays so perfectly against the down-trodden performance by Basden, who as‘McGwyer’, isn’t happy about where his career and life have taken him, and is even more unsure about where it’s all going.
More importantly, you can feel the chemistry in the songs betweenMcGwyer Mortimerwhen they begin rehearsing for their‘big show’on the island.
While I’m not a fan of this particular style of music, I found that it felt really well done, so I even went to find out who wrote the music.
Turns out, the songs were actually written by Tom Basden, and simply performed by the duo you see on screen.
ThroughMcGwyer Mortimer,we examine the journey of the fallen star.
The‘Once Upon A Time’tale of a musical act that was surely going to be icons, but had everything fall apart, and now one is still unable to let it go, while the other has settled into a simple life where she’s left the UK, and now sells homemade chutney with her husband in Portland.
Everything about this film works, and works brilliantly.
It’s funny, it’s heartwarming, and I’m gonna say this right now…it’s gonna resonate with you.
Because there’s something else at work here that I won’t spoil, I can confidently say, this film is really going to resonate with you as it carpet bombs you in the‘feels’,as shitty internet lingo would say.
That’s is, unless you’re a sociopath to whom nothing ever has connections as you journey through your time here.
But even then, you guys all seem to keep souvenirs of your kills, so it still may work for you too!
Seriously though…if music has ever touched you – if it ever served as the soundtrack for a time in your life, you willfeelthis film.
But before I leave you, I need to add this…
The most important thing for me about this film is, it did not end the way I was absolutely sure it was going to.
After all, we’ve all seen stories like this before, and they aren’t often brave enough to color outside the lines.
This did.
And it made everythingthat much betterfor it.