Do you remember what it was like to idolise a musician when you were a teenager? The hours spent driving our parents nutty from listening to our favourite songs on loop. Tha random magazines and junk we’d purchase purely because our idol’s name was in it. The hours before a concert or autograph signing, waiting in line for a mere glipse of our muso.
Now imagine if that teenager suddenly had millions of dollars.
That’s Charles Heath, one of our protagonists in The Ballad of Wallis Island.
Heath (played perfectly by Tim Key) has more money than he could possibly spend. So he decides to make a lifelong dream come true and hire his favourite act to perform a private concert just for him.
McGwyer Mortimer, was a folk pop duo comprising former couple, Herb McGwyer and Nell Mortimer. The duo have not played for over a decade, with McGwyer deciding to pursue a solo career – as any arrogant, self-proclaimed lead in a pop band tends to do.
And boy, does Tom Basden play the role of self-deluded popstar well. I spent the majority of the movie wanting to slap him for his selfish, entitled behaviour.
In McGwyer’s alternate reality, Google doesn’t exist. He thinks that it is highly plausible for a remote island with no proper harbour to have a venue for a small concert.
Even more mind-bogglingly, even though he has been hired because of McGwyer Mortimer, it doesn’t occur to him that Nell Mortimer is part of the package. Despite being paid five hundred thousand dollars for this gig, McGwyer has the audacity to suggest playing more of his contemporary, solo material.
Heath’s willingness to just be a sidekick magnifies this pratty behaviour. He follows McGwyer like a besotted puppy and does not take offence to any of the man child’s tantrums.
Like a lovestruck teenager, he is just happy that his idol is there. Heath is also painfully gawky in McGwyer’s presence. As he nervously prattles off what’s racing in his head, social cues go out the window. The contrast between McGwyer’s exasperation and Heath’s sweet nervousness are quietly hilarious.
When Carey Mulligan’s Mortimer enters the picture, I envisioned romantic tension that would resolve itself like a cliched rom com. It would have been romcom gold: a bad break up AND a perfect current partner to boot? A chance to reconnect over rehearsals? A passion project? The romcom tragic in me was already hearing wedding bells.
However, The Ballad of Wallis Island refuses to lead us down that rabbit hole. Instead of concentrating on the relationship between Mortimer and McGwyer, we see relationships bloom and wither but ultimately contribute to the protagonists’ evolution.
As Heath and McGwyer’s lives plod on in the end, I felt a sense of contentment. This isn’t a romcom in the traditional sense but a satisfying exploration and unravelling of other familiar relationships. In a world of squeakily polished rom coms, this movie reminds us that things aren’t always perfectly signed, sealed and delivered. And that it’s perfectly okay.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is now showing in theatres nationally.