Movies

The Ballad of Wallis Island, starring Tom Basden, Tim Key and Carey Mulligan
Trailer: Focus Features

The Ballad of Wallis Island
Directed by James Griffiths
Rated PG-13
Performed 11 April 2025
#TheBalladOfWallisIsland

Movies don’t come more genteel than The Ballad of Wallis Island.

Raspberry Fair

It’s a really great idea for a movie and it’s such a sweet, charming storyline that completely cuts against the grain of most movies today. Charlie Heath (Tim Key, Wicked Little Letters) is a quiet, super-sweet superfan of a folk duo called McGwyer Mortimer, a passion he shared with his now deceased wife.

Previously, Charlie worked as a male nurse, then he won the lottery. Those winnings were all spent traveling the world with some friends. After that, he was back to living in a sub-poverty state.

But then he won the lottery again.

This time, Charlie put his winnings into buying a lodge on a remote island, a tiny little needlepoint located between Samoa and Fiji. That was part one of his plans. Part two was to offer an enticing sum to McGwyer Mortimer to come to the island for a reunion performance.

He promises Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden, Ricky Gervais’ After Life) it’ll be an intimate performance on the beach. The artist, who’s keen on doing only "intimate" shows, is told there will be less than 100 people. Actually, it’ll be a performance for one, for Charlie all by his lonesome. But it’s not such a bad thing or bad idea. As Charlie so wisely observes, the worst thing about live gigs is the other people in the crowd. A-men, brother Charlie. A-men.

Similarly, The Ballad of Wallis Island is a David Lean-style sweeping epic with a cast of thousands. Well, slightly less than that. It’s a cast of five (or so).

Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman) is the other half of McGwyer Mortimer and she comes along with her husband, Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen, The Queen’s Gambit). Plus, there’s a shopkeeper, Amanda (Sian Clifford, Fleabag).

And... uh... There ya go. A cast of thousands. Or so.

Way Back When

As Charlie, Tim Key is supremely low-key. He’s a seasoned actor who’s surprisingly remained under the radar, which pays off here with his fresh face creating a fresh on-screen presence. He’s delightful — and how many times can the world "delightful" be used these days?

It’s a rarity.

With Herb now at his isolated mansion, Charlie presents him with a suitcase full of cash. But there’s a catch, not totally unexpected, under the circumstances. Charlie pays Henry 50 pounds upfront with the promise of giving him the remaining 499,950 pounds as seen in the suitcase after the show is successfully performed. That’s a half-million pounds for one concert with his old collaborator and ex-flame, Nell. (And she’ll get her own payout. Maybe not as much though. Because... You know... Managers.)

In their post-McGwyer Mortimer lives, Herb is now a solo artist exploring other styles of music and personas that really aren’t well-suited for him. But they seem to make some sort of impression on the social channels. Nell has gone a totally different route; she makes and sells chutney in Portland, Ore., with her hubby.

What could possibly go wrong in such a remote setting with such modest ambitions?

Maybe that’s not even the right question to ask. A better question might be to ask what took them so long. After all, this feature is based on a 2007 short titled The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, with Key, Basden and director James Griffiths setting the stage — so to speak — for The Ballad of Wallis Island 18 years later. It’s incredible to see such lengthy resumes for Basden and Key (who have been longtime collaborators in British pop culture) and yet to be so unfamiliar with the extent of their talent across the pond.

Break My Fall

Ballad features Basden and Mulligan rather deftly embodying a folk duo that’s fully realized thanks to immaculate details. In Charlie’s possession is a complete set of McGwyer Mortimer vinyl albums. The details are terrific: album names, typography, imagery and album art all come together to ground this fictional duo in a sense of reality, or at least an alternate reality. And Ballad comes on the heels of recent releases featuring multi-talented stars acting, singing and playing instruments. Of course, there’s the great Bob Dylan bio-pic, A Complete Unknown, and the obscure but fun direct-to-streaming release O’Dessa.

Mulligan, a three-time Oscar nominee, is known well enough as an A-list performer, but the revelation is seeing her in a new light as a singer. And Basden? How has this guy been hiding in plain sight? He not only stars as Herb, he wrote 25 songs for the fictional duo. Just like there’s a cast soundtrack recording of Dylan’s songs from A Complete Unknown, Ballad has a soundtrack available featuring 15 songs performed by Mulligan and Basden. It’s even packaged as a McGwyer Mortimer album and it’s all in service to a movie that was filmed in a crazy-short 18 days. And, of course, all of this plays to the underlying theme around the power — and importance — of music. It can change lives time and time again.

This performing duo is reminiscent of another multi-hyphenate experience, the Irish romantic drama Once, which also went on to be a major stage musical. Other John Carney movies come to mind as well, including Begin Again and Sing Street.

In keeping with the genteel vibes of Ballad, there’s also a bit of sweet romance, or the possibilities of one, for Charlie. The date of the reunion concert marks the fifth anniversary of his wife’s passing, but maybe he’ll have a new companion join him.

Sky Child

There’s so much sweetness getting set on the screen it becomes a bit of a head-scratcher as things unfold and certain creative decisions are made. This is classic "art house" cinema, though, so the unexpected turns should be expected.

It’s not that things don’t make sense. It all makes perfect sense, but it’s not necessarily the anticipated — or desired — path as the promise of this duo’s reunion faces a major reveal and an abrupt change of course, putting the special performance for Charlie in jeopardy.

It's fine Michael is essentially a nothing character. Sure, he’s Nell’s husband, but he spends most of the time birding off screen. But maybe it would’ve been better if he was either more involved or not even introduced — a completely off-screen, distant character.

Nonetheless, as the movie settles into the mind, some of these decisions start to sit better and the overall story becomes a little more rewarding when considered against life’s ebbs and flows.

Whoa. Not many movies these days even invite such considerations of life, ebbing and flowing.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.

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