If you have ever cried at a concert when your favorite artist played a song you loved, you’ll find awkward Charles (Tim Key) to be a kindred spirit. Happy tears, complicated tears, sad tears… super-fans know what I’m talking about. Charles, a youngish widower, lives on a sparsely populated coastal island in the UK, and he has literally offered his favorite singer half a millions pounds in cash (presented in a old suitcase) to his favorite singer Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) to perform a private concert. Why not? Charles has won the lottery after all. Twice.
Well, make that his favorite singers. McGwyer Mortimer had their heyday over a dozen years earlier, when they were a charmed award-winning folk duo at the peak of their success. But their eventual breakup was equally soured by the end of their romantic partnership. Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) moved on, but Hugh has been struggling to continue in the music biz as a solo artist. Needless to say, Nell’s invitation to perform with him on the island is a surprise to Hugh; he’s beside himself when she’s dropped off at the beach the next day. But perhaps more surprising to his wounded yet still pining heart is that she’s brought her husband.
The Ballad of Wallis Island hinges somewhat on the will they or won’t they tension of the duo, with Hugh acting pouty and selfish and Nell actually grounded and settled in her life outside the biz. But circling them is Charles, an awkward but sweet chatter-mouth, the kind of person who can’t mute his inside voice without commenting that he’s trying to mute his inside voice. It’s clear for very personal reasons why this concert and duo mean so much to him, and geez, try to keep your eyeballs from flooding when he struggles to contain his emotions when he hears his favorite songs.
Tim Key is the heart and soul of the film, managing a delicate balancing act as Charles. The guy is super-awkward and obviously lonely, with few social graces. But he is also sweet and harmless, prattling aimlessly and often vaguely about how his life led him to this moment. He’s a man who has both won everything (financially) and lost everything (his partner) in life. Reaching out with handfuls of cash to his and his (late) wife’s favorite performers seems like a last desperate culmination of a dream they should have shared together, but it’s also to give him a sense of closure. Shoot, when Herb plays the song “Our Love” for Charles, saying it is the last time he’ll ever sing it (a closure both men need), try not to cry.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a sweet and funny charmer with an appealing soundtrack. Where it may not have an obvious Oscar-bait song like Once, it makes up for it with its warm heart. More than ever, it seems, I welcome and appreciate a small, life-affirming tale like this that embraces and forgives its characters, flaws and all.
