2025 Universal Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Length: 1 hr 39min
Comedy ~ Drama ~ Music ~ Romance
Directed by: James Griffiths
Starring: Tom Basden, Tim Key and Carey Mulligan.
He’s Getting The Band Back Together!
On a misty Welsh island far from the mainland, eccentric two time lottery winner Charles Heath (Tim Key) lives alone with memories of his late wife and a collection of folk music relics. To mark the anniversary of his wife’s passing, he splurges on an unusual indulgence hiring his favorite long-disbanded duo, McGwyer Mortimer, for a private concert performed solely for him. When fading singer Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) arrives expecting a quick payday, he finds himself drawn into Charles’s odd orbit, equal parts wealth and loneliness. What he doesn’t expect is the reappearance of his former musical partner and ex-lover Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), whom Charles has secretly invited too.
Old wounds reopen as the trio collides over dinner, money, and old songs they can barely stand to hear again. Nell, now living quietly in Oregon with her bird-watcher husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen), wants nothing to do with her former life onstage. Herb, desperate to revive his failing solo career, clings to the past while resenting it. Charles, meanwhile, treats them both as living ghosts of the happiness he once shared with his wife. As rehearsals stumble forward, tense silences give way to laughter, confessions, and the soft rebirth of their music. In those verses and harmonies, decades of hurt and longing start to fold back into something tender and human.
When a storm lashes the island, everything spills over, grief, love, resentment, and unexpected forgiveness. Herb’s impulsive act to retrieve a drifting lantern ends in a clumsy rescue that finally grounds all three souls in truth. By the time dawn breaks, the concert has transformed into something far deeper: a quiet eulogy for love that outlasts fame. Herb leaves behind his payment and stage name, signing a guitar with his real identity before departing. In the film’s closing notes, Charles sits with Amanda (Sian Clifford) as folk music drifts across the waves, while somewhere inland, Herb begins recording a new song The Ballad of Wallis Island, proof that even broken chords can still find their tune.
What drew me in most about The Ballad of Wallis Island was the emotional honesty pulsing under its quiet humor. It’s not a loud movie and it doesn’t need to be. Watching Tim Key’s quirky, lonely Charles slowly chip away at Tom Basden’s crusty cynicism through his sheer enthusiasm for life reminded me that connection can be just as healing as grief is deep. There’s a tenderness in how the film handles nostalgia, the ache of remembering who we used to be, the music we used to play, the people we used to love, without ever making it feel maudlin or manipulative. It feels human, awkward, and genuine, the kind of bittersweet storytelling we don’t often get anymore.
I think that’s why I loved it so much, it reminds us that life doesn’t have to wrap up neatly. The film embraces imperfection, lingering in the missed notes and uncomfortable silences between people trying to find forgiveness. It’s a movie about the quiet miracles of emotional survival, how creativity and companionship can pull us through when everything else falls away. Carey Mulligan’s performance gives the story its heart, a reminder that growth sometimes comes from sitting in the sadness and still choosing to sing. By the closing scene, that final song feels earned, like a life that’s been lived, scarred, and still somehow hopeful.
An absolute Gem of a Movie that started out as an Indie Short Film, I highly recommend this one!
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