Dir: James Griffiths | US Drama 2025
Reviewed by Ian Long
People can be very obsessive about music. Did I say people? I think I meant men. In the comment section below the most anodyne track on YouTube you’ll find some bloke, some guy, some dude, banging on about the song’s world-historical qualities. And giving major grief to anyone with a contrary opinion.
In James Griffiths’ very engaging and enjoyable comedy The Ballad of Wallis Island, Charles (Tim Key) is just such a fanatic. His enthusiasm is focused on the erstwhile folk duo McGwyer Mortimer, and, having become a multi-millionaire in comically random circumstances, Charles has invited Herb McGwyer (Tom Baden) to the Welsh island which is now his personal fiefdom to give a very special concert.
Unfortunately, Charles is one of the most annoying human beings imaginable, verbalising a mindless inner monologue in an unbroken stream of patter, quips and half-rhymes that would shame a 1970s Radio One DJ. Something which immediately makes for friction with the cool, stylish, somewhat aloof Herb.
This set-up of the reserved artist trapped in squeamishly close quarters with his Number One Fan will remind some of Misery , Rob Reiner’s suspenseful masterpiece of the 1990s. But Wallis Island doesn’t have that film’s horror overtones. Luckily for Herb, Charles is no Annie Wilkes. His enthusiasm, though alarmingly monomaniacal, is far more puppyish and benign.
But there’s still a problem. Whether by design or sheer ineptness, Charle hasn’t told Herb that he’s also invited Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), Herb’s previous partner (both musical and romantic), to the island. Herb’s split-up with Nell was painful and acrimonious. But to get the hugely inflated pay-off Charles has promised them, they’re going to have to perform together.
Wallis Island is essentially a rite-of-passage story: more than one person here is trapped in a phase of life from which they need to be liberated in order to move on. If some of the plot turns feel slightly contrived, this doesn’t detract from the movie’s genuine wit, humour and feelgood quality, or from the warmth and emotional depth emerging in its second half, which suggests that a preoccupation with music may sometimes paper over cracks in men’s emotional lives.
Key and Baden both turn in excellent performances based on a solid script. The film looks great, with G. Magni Ágústsson’s cinematography capturing the wild beauty of the island and the cultivated interior of Charles’s house – even if the tasteful décor of the latter may not fully reflect the half-baked persona and one-track mind of its owner. Ian Long
IN CINEMAS FROM MAY 30 2025