Wealthy loner Charles Heath (Tim Key) hires disbanded folk duo McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) for a gig. The catch? Only one of the singers knows it’s a reunion.
The Ballad Of Wallis Island begins with big-in-the-aughts folk singer Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) travelling by boat to a (fictional) Welsh island to play a private gig. Embellishing this premise from his 2007 BAFTA-nominated short, James Griffiths’ small-scale treat, written by stars Basden (Plebs, After Life) and Tim Key (Alan Partridge’s lackey Sidekick Simon), finds a sweet spot between heart and humour that sensitively explores love, loss and the difficulty in reconciling with the past, without ever skimping on great gags.
Herb is greeted on shore by Charles Heath (Key), a lonely, over-bearing but good-natured hardcore fan. Living an isolated life, Charles uses constant chatter and wordplay (after Herb falls in the sea, Charles dubs him ‘Dame Judi Drenched’) to overcompensate for (a deftly etched) melancholy. In Key’s hands, Charles is a terrific comedy creation, be it announcing dessert (“Let’s get ready to crumble!”) or creating Herb’s rider (a ‘Winona’, in Charles’ parlance) based on old interviews: pickled onion Monster Munch, Braeburn apples and Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Slowly, the unusual nature of the gig emerges. Firstly, the concert is for only Charles (how he can afford Herb’s £500,000 fee is a stroke of genius screenwriting absurdism). Secondly, Herb will be joined by his former folk partner and ex-lover Nell Mortimer (a winning Carey Mulligan, by turns sharp and sweet), whom he hasn’t seen in nine years. Can the pair put the past aside and get the band back together for just one night?
As writers and performers, Basden and Key handle their bruised people with compassion and generosity.
This isn’t flawless storytelling — there’s a convenient contrivance at its centre, while Sian Clifford’s potential love interest for Charles feels under-served — but Basden and Key’s writing never takes the obvious path, throwing in plot-twists and surprising revelations amid strong character work. Ballad shares DNA with Local Hero, celebrating the magical properties of a stunning landscape, but really it’s about the transformative power of both music and people. After an initial reluctance, McGwyer and Mortimer start singing together and it’s a delight to watch. Basden has composed a clutch of poignant songs (“I couldn’t say ‘Hi’/because I was coconut shy”), his harmonies with Mulligan are beautiful, and there is something undeniably moving in watching Charles well up listening to his heroes reunited.
Herb’s shifting perception of Charles and growing reconnection with Nell are perfectly pitched and played. As writers and performers, Basden and Key handle their bruised people with compassion and generosity. As such, The Ballad Of Wallis Island is warm, perceptive and quietly life-affirming. For, if this jaded muso and sad-sack fanboy can evolve and grow, there’s hope for everyone.
The Ballad Of Wallis Island is a big-hearted, consoling hug of a movie. It might not reinvent the wheel, but it’s the low-(Tim)-key crowd-pleaser of the year so far.
