Although it has turned up at the backend of some top ten lists and honorable mention on a few others, “The Ballad of Wallis Island” is the kind of quirky, independent film that could easily fall through the cracks, and that would be a shame. It is by turns a charming, joyous and totally unexpected meditation on lost love and renewed hope. For the lucky few who don’t need that, no need to read any further.
If Wallis Island were a real place it would be a dot off the coast of Wales, near where the film was shot. But in reality it’s more a state of mind, a fairy tale in which shipwrecked souls wash up on a distant shore and surprisingly heal each other.
Charles Heath (Tim Key) is an eccentric millionaire who came by his fortune by winning the lottery not once, but twice. He lives a mostly solitary existence in a funky old mansion full of remembrances of things past. For reasons only he knows, Charles has summoned his favorite musician, Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden), to the island to play a private show. But everything seems a little off kilter when McGwyer arrives. There is no pier to dock at and no entourage to meet him, so he scrambles ashore in shallow water carrying his baggage and guitar overhead. His cell phone, however, doesn’t make it.
At first, Charles is such a goofy motormouth it seems unlikely that McGwyer or the audience can last very long on this island. Full of puns, silly wordplay, and non-sequiturs only he understands, Charles is a handful to be around. He’s excited both to have his idol there and some company for a change.
Still, there is something endearing about Charles’s neediness. He’s been on his own for so long that he has spent considerable time mastering a one-sided game of tennis in which he developed a killer serve but nothing else since there is no one there to return the ball. It’s that kind of offbeat humor that keeps the film humming along.
Lots of films shoot for this sort of absurdist humor and it often turns out cutesy and dumb. “Wallis Island” strikes the right balance of seriousness and dry comedy. It reminded me of Bill Forsyth’s pitch-perfect comedy “Local Hero” (1983) in which an American oil executive attempts to take over a remote Scottish village but falls to its charm. (Highly recommended if you haven’t seen it.)
McGwyer can’t tell what he’s gotten himself into but the promise of a half-a-million-pound payday is too sweet to turn down. He’s a talented musician but a bit worse for wear. He was once part of a folk-rock duo, McGwyer Mortimer, that was on the verge of being big, hence Charles’s intense fandom, but fame and fortune never materialized. He’s continued to make records and tried to move on but the truth is, he’s kind of stuck in the past musically and emotionally.
As chatty as Charles is, he neglects to communicate one crucial detail to McGwyer: he has also invited Nell Mortimer (Cary Mulligan), the other half of the group, to join McGwyer for the performance. And one more thing, it’s all for an audience of one. It has been Charles’ dream to reunite the team and relive his happier days.
This is a bridge too far for McGwyer who packs up his bags more than once and waits for the erratically scheduled dinghy to take him off the island. Mortimer was not just his musical partner, she was his lover and they haven’t seen each other for nine years. But she arrives before he can escape, and with her husband (Akemnji Ndifornye) no less. She’s given up her almost-big-time musical dream and now makes chutney to sell at farmers markets.
There’s a lot of huffing and puffing and hurt feelings as McGwyer and Mortimer circle each other like two stray cats. But once they settle down to play their old songs, guess what, they’re really good, especially a haunting tune called “Raspberry Fair.” The songs were written by Basden and harken back to the ’60s in a good way, with sincerity, feeling and catchy melodies.
For McGwyer the songs trigger memories of another time and place, the way songs have the power to do. Overwhelmed by the flush of emotions, McGwyer at first thinks everything is the same, declares his love for Nell and wants to go back to the past with her. Fortunately, she’s more grounded and finally forces McGwyer to let go and move on with his life. It’s as if hearing the songs one more time has brought him back to the reality of his life. This is the lesson he gratefully takes away from Wallis Island.
For his part, hearing the duo playing again in a fire lit performance on the beach, Charles is also able shake what has been holding him back and move on with his life. And there might even be a tennis partner waiting for him on the island,
If the “The Ballad of Willis Island” has a lived in feeling, that’s partially due to its unusual gestation. It started life as a BAFTA-award winning short film in 2007 entitled “The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island.” After that, director James Griffiths, Basden and Key went off on their own successful careers in British TV comedy, occasionally crossing paths. Then when the pandemic forced them into isolation, they realized there was more to the story and expanded it into a feature screenplay.
Time was kind to the material. They came back to it with a deeper understanding of the characters and the skill and comic timing that only veteran players could bring to it. After an almost 20-year wait, the film is now truly a lovely song of innocence and experience.
