James Griffith’s The Ballad of Wallis Island has the amiable shagginess of a hangout film even though it’s pivotal that almost none of these people are thrilled to be hanging out with each other. That is a necessary undercurrent here, adding—at various points—comic tension, acidity, dramatic tension, bittersweetness, melancholy, and character growth. It’s almost an exercise in how few story elements you need to make a successful movie, especially of the quiet dramedy part. But this is the salt, the bit that brings it all into full relief.
Tim Key plays Charles, a lottery winner gently out-of-step with the world around him. He now lives on a remote island—the sort of place where the local shopkeeper is still trying to wrap her head around the existence of Reese’s peanut butter cups—and he’s paid a lot of money to reunite one-time folk duo McGwyer Mortimer for a personal concert.
But Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden), at least, arrives without knowing the specifics of the gig, from “the guest list is one person long” to “your former partner—and lover—will be playing with you.” To make things worse, Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) has arrived with her husband, Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen).
It could be a set-up for a lot of cringe comedy, and there’s a bit of that, especially from Charles, who makes bad puns as naturally as he breathes and who’s apparently read every McGwyer Mortimer interview in existence. Tim Key is a master at generating awkwardness that’s just sympathetic enough to not be creepy, and he puts that to good use in the first act or so of the film. But as it goes on, The Ballad of Wallis Island develops into something gentler, maybe even something that takes its island landscape as inspiration. You have the rocky cliffs, and you’re very far away from where you should be. But the tide goes out and the tide goes in, steadily, and it’s beautiful, really. But it’s lonely, so you need to learn how to be comfortable with yourself.
No one here is, but—even after it seems like things might be worse than ever—they get there, gradually, until an act of sweetness and grace that would’ve seemed impossible at the start feels welcome and right by the end. And in the middle, you have good songs and good, specific details, like the widowed Charles’s offhanded explanation for why his tennis game all goes downhill after his top-notch serves.
It doesn’t quite achieve realism, but it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to. It’s sidling up alongside something like Local Hero, instead: hopeful humanism, carried by some expressive faces. It suits the music in it.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is streaming on Amazon Prime.
About the writer
Lauren James
Lauren James is a writer who wears many different hats (and pen names). She lives in Connecticut with her wife and two cats.
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A little slice of American folklore that feels like it's been here all along.
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What did we watch?
Justified, Season Five, Episode Three, “Good Intentions”
I’m really enjoying this season. Building a whole plot out of Raylan living in some guy’s house that was seized is so good, and the other plots are a lot of fun. If the issue most people have with it outside the Rapaport of the whole thing has come up, I’m not seeing it, and I’m not even seeing it with Rapaport.
“Tell you the truth, left to my own devices, I wouldn’t even think about it.” I’m sure, Raylan. His most banal feature is that he tries not to think about things that bother him, including things that say things about him. I sometimes wonder if I’d be better off with the unexamined life, but then life wouldn’t be any fun.
Biggest Laugh: “What, did I catch you working out?”
Biggest Non-Art Laugh: “You’re not gonna believe this. I have to go.” / “What?” Raylan’s response there is so small and pathetic, I love it. The great thing about Justified is that Raylan is a generic action hero but Timothy Olyphant is a real actor, with all the lack of ego that comes with that.
Top Ownage: “Almost took out my eye!” / “Yeah, I know, I missed.” Boyd’s charisma backing this up is amazing. Some people are nothing but drive. In this particular plot, Boyd has been reduced to nothing but a singular purpose, which is by far the coolest thing in the world.
Other moment of ownage and one of my favorites in the show: Mikey shooting Berkeley in defense of Duffy and having the permit/legal justification. “Why do you think I keep him around? Mikey’s a stone cold killer.”
Inside No. 9, “The Curse of the Ninth”
A well-crafted Edwardian horror tale about the “curse of the Ninth,” a superstition that suggests a composer’s ninth symphony is doomed to always be their last (here, because they immediately meet a grisly supernatural demise). This has excellent atmosphere–A+ house–and I like the way the macabre, unusual crime plot leads naturally on to something stranger. The crime bit itself is well-done, too, with some nice comic couches, some darkness of its own, and a little effortless social critique (the piano tuner with one-time musical ambitions not being able to bear the parlor-maid referring to them both as the help, for example). But the key bit is the deft, poetic ownage that comes from one character finding the logic of the supernatural events and using that, deservedly or not, to their own advantage.
Love Lies Bleeding
Rewatch with a friend who hadn’t seen it before, since she was intrigued by the mentions of it in Movie Club. I’ve talked about this before in this company, so I’ll just add that this has to be one of the best, bleakest, most darkly funny bits of credit-scrolling in history.
Oh, that last bit is so bleakly funny. Also Kristen Stewart’s spitting “Love you, SIS!” is gonna stick with me for awhile.
That line is so brutal, especially on the heels of Stewart sizing up the situation and what she needs to do to get what she wants–what she needs to take advantage of to get what she wants, in a desperate situation–and going for it. (Very impressed the film went there.)
Two Mules for Sister Sara – Clint Eastwood is a Civil War veteran on his way to do something for the Juaristas during the Mexican Civil War. Shirley McLaine is the nun he rescues from would-be rapists, and who happens to also be on the run from the French Army (the other side in this war). Before long they make common cause every though he is mighty uncomfortable being around a very attractive woman who he can’t touch. But don’t worry, as it turns out that lady is no nun! The story is fairly implausible and the ending turns from “Don Siegel makes a Leone film but in Mexico” to “Siegel embraces the ultra-violence of The Wild Bunch.” But it’s pretty fun and the chemistry between Clint and Shirley is quite good. Music by Morricone to add to the Leone feel. First script by Albert Maltz under his real name since before the blacklist.
The legendary director Budd Boetticher wrote the original draft of TWO MULES, which was a kind of return for Hollywood for him as well. In his case, he subjected himself to an alcohol fueled self imposed exile in Mexico and an obsessive quest to film a documentary on bullfighting, whose central figure was killed in an automobile accident during production. When I had lunch with Boetticher back when I worked at the Autry, He said that he personally liked Eastwood but that he hated what Maltz did with his script.
BTW, Quentin Tarantino has some interesting thoughts on Siegel during the 70s”Cinema Speculations”. I think you’d dig CHARLEY VERRICK if you haven’t seen it. It does a better job at getting the Elmore Leonard vibe than any of the official Leonard adaptations of the period
Saw Charley Varrick some time ago, and liked it, once I accepted that Walter Matthau was a ladies’ man. The 70s was weird.
We’re supposed to see him as a ladykiller in A New Leaf.
But also an incredibly indifferent ladykiller (and I always thought just a bit queer-coded). Never let it be said that Elaine May is conventional.
Reggie Dinkins – Such a fun episode, turning into a “murder mystery” with Reggie trying to sort out who destroyed his (truly hideous) Rutgers statue despite an interview coming up in an hour. Precious Way gets her funniest moment so far and Radcliffe ends up looking ludicrously silly in a way I wouldn’t dream of spoiling. I’d be cool with Monica getting a new idiot assistant every few episodes.
“It’s the black mark on Grandmama Evans!”
“She’s white, I’ll tell her it’s Kwandzadan and she’ll believe me.”
“We don’t have time for your Blackatha Christie act.” “First off, great idea for a movie.” (Monica reluctantly nods as if to say that’s true.)
Year of the Month update!
Next month, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1949.
April. 9th: Cori Domschot: I Was a Male War Bride
Apr. 16th: Cori Domschot: On the Town
Apr. 23rd: Bridgett Taylor: Confessions of a Mask
And in May, we’ll be opening the doors for your writing on any movies, albums, books, etc. from 2014!
TBD: Cori Domschot: Earth to Echo
TBD: Cori Domschot: Jack Ryan
This sounds perfect for a weekend afternoon.