Watch or Pass?

The Ballad of Wallis Island (now streaming on Peacock) represents the delightful genre of Quirky Little British Comedy you’re probably accustomed to. It features characters who are eccentric and slightly awkward, blended with a grumpy counterpart, creating a mixture of humor and pathos with moments of happiness and sorrow presented in a bittersweet fashion. Initially a 2007 BAFTA-nominated short film by James Griffiths, with a script penned by principal actors Tim Key and Tom Basden, it eventually evolved into a full-length feature starring the exceptional Carey Mulligan. If such a mix sounds like an enjoyable cinematic journey, you’d likely be correct.

The Gist: Charles (Key) isn’t fond of silence. He constantly fills silent moments with endless chatter, making him charmingly tolerable unless you’re Herb McGwyer (Basden). Herb, as we soon discover, is going through a tough time—and he’s now wet as well. He’s just arrived at Wallis Island, near Wales, which lacks a dock, requiring visitors to wade ashore. Unfortunately, Herb’s encounter with Charles leads him to fall into the water. Quite a dramatic kickoff to his visit, and things don’t improve from there. Herb is one half of McGwyer Mortimer, a folk-music duo that disbanded a decade ago. Charles is a fervent fan who has brought Herb to perform for an “audience of fewer than 100” on Wallis Island—truthfully, it’s an audience of one: Charles alone. Though his enthusiasm could equal five to ten people, he remains just a single man with bright eyes, a broad smile, and an oversized sweater. A person who’s distinctly uncomfortable.

Yet this awkward man brings with him a suitcase containing £500k in cash, serving as payment for Herb’s performance. This certainly helps Charles’s lack of understanding of personal boundaries become more bearable. Crucially, Charles isn’t someone who exploits his wealth to do as he wishes because he can afford it. Rather, he’s a kind-hearted, slightly clueless chap with a bit of fragility. However, communication isn’t his strong suit, illustrated by his failure to inform Herb that Nell Mortimer (Mulligan) is also being paid to perform. Yes, the same Nell Mortimer from McGwyer Mortimer, the folk duo that ended both as a music group and a life partnership a decade ago. And there she is, stepping off the boat with a smile and her husband, Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen), who’s eager to be there due to his interest in watching the local puffins. Nell is fully aware of Herb’s presence and is set to earn £200k less than him. Charles. For real. Come on, more transparency, dude!

Now, if you thought Herb was a grumpy miserable sot because there’s no rice on the island in which to dry out his waterlogged phone, now he has to contend with an unplanned monumentally upsetting reunion for a performance on a windswept beach in the middle of nowhere for one goofy guy. One goofy guy who won the lottery, which is how he can afford it, and who’s still busted up from the death of his wife, and who’s too timid to ask one of his fellow islanders, shopkeeper Amanda (Sian Clifford), over for dinner. You thought Charles was hugworthy already. What we’re still not sure about is whether Charles wants McGwyer Mortimer just to get back together, or to get back together, although he’s innocent enough in demeanor that he likely did it just to experience a moment of bittersweet joy as he tries to navigate his lonely life. Dude just loves music and wants to hear his favorite musicians sing again. Is there a better use for one’s money? I think not.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Once debuted in 2007, and I can very much see how Wallis Island could be a continuation of that making-beautiful-music-together love story, 18 years later.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s almost too easy to pinpoint the most famous cast member, but Mulligan gives the richest performance. Her character wasn’t in the original short, and the short shrift Nell gets makes her feel tacked on, but Mulligan does a lot with very little on the page, memorably so.

Memorable Dialogue: Charles demonstrates the weird manner in which he tends to speak when he discusses the potentially rekindled spark between McGwyer and Mortimer: “I’m not talking musically, Herb. I’m talking chemistrarily.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Wallis Island is an understated charmer with nicely calibrated performances, lovely cinematography and a sneaky-deep screenplay that lightens the heft of its subject matter – depression, loneliness, isolation, the other side of fame – with some pleasantly familiar comedy. Key is perfectly loopy as the secretly sad superfan. Basden plays an incurable asshole who, of course, ends up being absolutely curable. And Mulligan elbows her way past an underwritten character and fills the divide between the two principal men with warmth and a grounded sense of reality. I liked how the film lightly satirizes a few Behind the Music cliches, as Herb desperately tries to revive a flagging career by donning the ill-fitting garb of a young pop star; meanwhile, Nell seems to have happily faded into her private life after being chewed up and spat out by the music business.

Which leads us to the true heart of the film: How intensely personal music can be for its writers, performers and listeners. As Nell and Herb try to once again work through heartfelt love songs they sang to each other, he struggles with their emotional weight while she understands that the songs are no longer theirs. Indeed, they belong to people like Charles, who’s absorbed the chords, melody and poetry into his life. They might mean more to him than to Nell and Herb at this point. They exist in the tender spot between his greatest joys and greatest pain, as he remembers the love he felt for his late wife when they listened, and now uses those same songs as salve for his wounds. In many ways, this is a silly little film that plays out predictably, but in others, it taps into profound truths about the relationship between art and the human soul. It could’ve been content to deliver a few light laughs and a little drama, but it ends up overachieving for our benefit.

Our Call: The Ballad of Wallis Island is a lovely little film. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.