‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ Review: James Griffiths’s Oddball Charmer Has a Song in its Heart [A] – Sundance Film Festival
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There is something satisfying and sweet about watching a diva navigate uncomfortable circumstances that slowly melt their icy heart. This is the story of The Ballad of Wallis Island, a cozy, charming new film from director James Griffiths and co-writers and stars Tom Basden and Tim Key.
The diva in question is Herb McGwyer (Basden), a musician who, ten years ago, blew up his romantic relationship and successful folk duo with partner Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) when he released a solo album behind her back. Now, Herb has been hired to perform a private gig on Wallis Island, a remote, sparsely populated hideaway off the coast of England that has fewer amenities than people.
Charles Heath (Key) meets Herb at the rocky shore where the musician’s arrival is marred first when he falls out of the boat into the shallows, and then by Charles’ incessant chatter, consisting largely of puns and memories of the glory days of McGwyer-Mortimer. While Herb bemoans his drowned iPhone, glowering and grumbling up the stony path to his host’s house, Charles cheerfully jabbers about all the things people love about Wallis Island. “Kate Bush came here once,” he reminisces. “Not for a gig, for peace and quiet.”
The house is full of memorabilia from another era. The entire collection of McGwyer-Mortimer albums is on display. Posters, ticket stubs, hats, collectibles, and framed newspaper articles reveal a lonely superfan who won the lottery and now curates his own personal museum.
Charles is an affable dad-type with knitted cardigans, a jokey response to everything and a slightly daft misunderstanding of simple requests. When Herb wants to call his agent on the mainland and needs change for the phone, he asks Charles to break a £50 note, and the host merrily returns from the shop with a bag full of coins. “You changed the whole thing?” Herb asks as Charles proudly nods like a child who helped put the dishes away but forgot to wash them first.
It would be easy to get annoyed by someone like Charles, especially from Herb’s position. He can’t stop talking about the quiet, follows his guest like a puppy, and keeps accidentally revealing that he wasn’t entirely honest about some of the details when negotiating the gig. But Tim Key is so endearing that it’s impossible not to be charmed by his blend of middle-age loneliness and boyish exuberance.
Herb’s unhappy time is made worse the next morning when he is surprised by the arrival of his former partner, Nell and her husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen). Nell is unfazed by the sight of Herb, all smiles and politeness. Herb soon realizes he is the only one who didn’t know Charles has arranged a one-night-only reunion.
Mulligan is a welcome addition, bringing a breezy coolness as Nell delights in all the things that annoy Herb. After the end of their act, she settled into a quiet life with Michael in Portland, making chutney to sell at farmer’s markets. She’s being paid a lot of money (though, it turns out, not as much as Herb) to spend a few days in the middle of nowhere and she is only too happy to indulge her eccentric yet harmless benefactor.
Griffiths, Basden, and Key expand their own 2007 short film, The One and Only Herb McGwyre Plays Wallis Island, the BAFTA-nominated two-hander that centered on Herb rediscovering his love for music. For the feature, Herb has been too caught up in the business side of things to remember why he started playing in the first place. He accepted the gig to fund his latest album, a hacky mix of collaborations with bigger artists.
Adding Nell to the fold lends a needed warmth and welcome respite from Herb’s grumpiness. He could have easily been a boring, one-note character, but reuniting with Nell unlocks something in him that was long buried. Not just his love for music, but an interest in people and life. He is at first dismissive of Amanda (Sian Clifford, Fleabag), the adorably clueless shopkeeper who keeps very few things in stock. (When Nell inquires about Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, a bewildered Amanda offers a jar of peanut butter and a coffee cup.) But the longer he spends with an adoring Charles and a Nell, playing the old tunes and removed from outside distractions, the more he reconnects with things that are far more important.
That is not to say that Nell has completely let go of the past or the way Herb left things. She chooses not to dwell on what can’t be changed. She’s here to play a part, collect her cash, and go back to life with her bird-watching husband. Though Michael disappears for a stretch to go on a puffin excursion across the island, ostensibly to give them time to work, it is clear he came here not out of concern for what might happen when she sees her old flame, but to say things to Herb that she won’t. And until those unspoken things come out, no one can truly move on.
The Ballad of Wallis Island feels like a John Carney film, with the folksy sweetness of Flora & Son or Once. It is a heartfelt, warm blanket of a comedy that contains just the right amounts of depth and real feelings to keep it from being too silly. For every passing moment of grief, there is hope. Even as our characters face an uncertain future, there is optimism in the uncertainty, as if for the first time in a long time, it’s okay not to know what happens next.
Grade: A
This review is from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where The Ballad of Wallis Island had its world premiere. Focus Features will release the film in the U.S. on March 28.
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