The Ballad of Wallis Island - spoiler free opinions

There's something about this type of film I really just can't help but love because I find it to be cinema in its rawest form, and it achieves this with a style of storytelling that is incredibly easy for audiences to connect with. By telling a story that is inherently about lost love, and also found love, The Ballad of Wallis Island highlights feelings with a story that a lot of audiences will have experienced - the difficulties of coming to terms with the past and learning to look forward again.

Based on the 2007 short film with a similar name, The Ballad of Wallis Island tells the story of eccentric widowed superfan Charles Heath (Tim Key) as he uses his lottery winnings to invite both halves of his beloved folk duo, McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) to his private island in order to play a gig on the 5th anniversary of his wife's death. The only problem is that they broke up several years prior to the film and haven't seen each other since.

Interestingly, I found the film to be incredibly precise with it's emotional beats as Director James Griffiths (who also directed the original short film) creates a very efficient story that is clear with its intentions and goals from the get go. This allows the audience to have a strong understanding of the characters, the relationships between them, and where everyone is at mentally quite fast into the movie. This is really important in a film with a short runtime (about 1 hr 40) because by establishing all of this early, it allows more time for the audiences to connect with the character's journeys over the course of the film. As a result of this approach, the film ends up being an absolute delight to watch because you are so much more connected to the characters and then when you throw in the really strong writing and performances, you end up with a really good film.

Something that I also have to give the film a lot of credit for is its ability to maintain strong focus for audiences with an incredibly small cast. The film has about 5 characters throughout with there not really being any scenes with more than 3 on screen at one time, and I think it would be really easy for a film with a cast this size to end up creating distance between the characters and the audiences with ineffective storytelling. I mentioned previously that the film is incredibly precise with its emotional beats and it does this by not including any scenes that add nothing to either the narrative or the relationships it's trying to evolve. This is helped massively by the strength of the cast's performances. Maintaining such efficient beats within the story could easily be lost if the acting wasn't up to scratch but everyone involved gives incredibly strong performances that allows this film to be as charming as it is. I think particular credit has to go to Tim Key and Tom Basden, who also starred in the original short film, because the evolving relationship between their two characters and how that evolution represents each character's own journey is the heart of the movie.

I really recommend this film to anyone as I think it has something in it for all. It's as charming as it is heartwarming and it's definitely one of my favourite films of the year so far. Unfortunately, it's not on in loads of cinemas in the UK at the moment but definitely try to see it if you can, if not wait for it to be on streaming services as it's worth catching!

5 STARS