Cast: Tom Basden, Tim Key, Sian Clifford, Akemnji Ndifornyen, and Carey Mulligan.

Written by: Tom Basden and Tim Key, based on the short film.

Directed By: James Griffiths

Original Score By: Adem Ilhan

Studio: Focus features

Release Year: 2025

Audio Description produced By:

Written by:

Narrated By:

what Is It?: A musician takes a high paying gig to supposedly play a concert for a small crowd on Wallis island. When he arrives, he realizes just how small the audience will be, and his benefactor has booked another act, forcing a reunion of a musical duo that broke up years ago.

What Works: it’s charming, I’ll give it that. I’ve already seen it twice, and it is a nice, pleasant, watch. It has a clever concept, and executes it well. The rich guy who invites them has preposterously won the lottery twice, but we’ll go with it. Now he’s just figuring out what to spend his money on, and he wants to reunite this duo, for a pretty private concert.

The music is very folksy, singer/songwriter, acoustic style, which works for this setting. this is very much a man with a guitar type of concert, and not an overly electric band with a ton of setup. All of the performances are pleasant. The Ballad Of Wallis Island has all these lovely beats it hits.

It is not a bad film, but it does feel like a film that didn’t make a strong enough impression to be remembered five or ten years from now. I can’t see it picking up a cult following, and because of how we consume film, and the basic lack of star power, I worry if this will just get gradually lost to the passage of time. It’s a shame, because it is a very friendly film, with a nice emotional balance, and an understanding of keeping it light.

What Doesn’t Work: There’s just this feeling that you’ve watched something of little consequence. It isn’t trying to redefine cinema, or make tons of money, or any of the usual things a director or studio seems to want to do. It is like Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. It’s just asking for us to love it.

In its effort to remain as widely accessible and inoffensive as possible, it never really makes that bold strike, or takes a la leap, and often the movies we remember, on either end of the spectrum, consist of films that took swings, and didn’t play it safe. look at some of last year’s flops. Megalopolis? Joker Folie Aux Deux? Here? All took artistic swings. And the best films of last year did as well, from The substance to The Brutalist, people take risks. Filmmakers go big or go home. This is just fine, and I’d watch it with anyone. But will they remember we saw it?

Audio description: I like the audio description, as it directly points out a few of the more quirkier elements of the film to help sell the light comedy a bit more. It is a nearly single location film, with the entire film on this island, with a very small cast, set in modern day. The most interesting things in these types of films become actor’s reactions, and the little things they do to individualize themselves. I think this track does that.

You Might Like it If: You look at the AARP Movies for Grown Ups awards every year and feel seen.

You Might Not Like this if: You enjoy movies that are big, loud, expensive, and in a genre like action, science fiction, or horror. This is the film you go to with grandma, but it is also the kind of safe film parents can drag their kids to so they can watch something they want, without paying for a babysitter. It’s for everyone, just not everyone will seek it out.

Final Thoughts: As the film itself ruminates on the life’s work of an artist, The Ballad Of Wallis Island feels more like a pleasant, but forgettable B-side track, than one of the artist’s greatest hits.

Fresh: 7.4/10