I’m surprised John Carney had nothing to do with this funny and sweet music film.
I’ve seen two music documentaries at the Boulder International Film Festival: “One to One: John & Yoko,” which I didn’t think delve into its motives and needed some editing work, and “Devo,” which was quite insightful about the band and what was going on in the world around them.
“The Ballad of Wallis Island” isn’t a music documentary or based on real musicians, but it does provide the authenticity of them. Mainly, it’s about a humble lottery winner, who is humble enough not to own a cellphone or some of today’s new technology, but he does win the opportunity to bring his favorite music duo back to together for a gig.
This duo is known as McGwyer Mortimer, which consisted of Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), and they’ve broken up. So while, Herb does his solo albums, Nell moves on with her birder husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen). So, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” as Bob Dylan would say.
Their biggest fan is the lottery winner Charles (Tim Key), and he’s eager to set up a private show for himself, which he told Herb the audience would be “less than 100 people.” He is that “less than 100” person.
As you probably would expect for a celebrity on a remote and humble island, Herb becomes agitated that he has to get wet from the boat, as there’s no dock, and that his phone has to get wet. So it’s complicated for him to get rice, and has to rely on pay phones to make his calls. And he’s less than enthusiastic about his gracious host’s optimistic nature, and the fact that Nell and Michael were both invited as well.
I checked the credits and John Carney has nothing to do with this movie. Instead that would be director James Griffiths, whose last film was “Cuban Fury,” and writers Basden and Key. They also based “The Ballad of Wallis Island” on a short film they all made. This has a certain Carney spirit and tone that delights us, and these three have what it takes to reach his standards. That is if they were trying to, but even if they weren’t, they still deliver the goods here.
There’s also some equally excellent work from Mulligan, who delivers her tone through her character’s broken relationship with Herb, Ndiforyen, who succumbs to no cliches regarding the new spouse with a lesser aspect, and Sian Clifford (“You Woman and the Sea,” “See How They Run”), who plays the local shopkeep named Amanda. She’s one of the few who doesn’t know about cellphones or what Resse’s peanut butter cups are. You just need a cup with peanut butter, as far as she’s concerned.
Parts of the third act tends to get a little boring, but there’s a lot of impact presented in this small film with a big heart. The movie knows how to balance comedy and seriousness, as well as the mismatched chemistry between Basden and Key, who continue an Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit tradition. You know in the notion of the joyless guy and the happy guy that we’ve been seeing lately in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” or “Deadpool & Wolverine.” One joke was predictable to me, but I still laughed at it, because of how these comedians and the director choose to handle it. I don’t want to give it away, but you might want to get a waterproof case.
Let me make an interesting distinction. I saw this movie on the same day that I saw the new Jason Statham action vehicle “A Working Man.” I was delighted by “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” and I was bored to death by the other film.
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