The Ballad of Wallis Island – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 28th of August 2025
Universal Pictures and Park Circus present a film by James Griffiths
Screenplay by Tom Basden and Tim Key based on ‘The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island’ by Tom Basden and Tim Key
Produced by Rupert Majendie
Starring Tom Basden, Tim Key, and Carey Mulligan
Cinematography G. Magni Ágústsson
Edited by Quin Williams
Music by Adem Ilhan
Rating: PG
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: the 28th of August 2025
The Ballad of Wallis Island tells the story of Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden), a down-and-out musician and one half of the former folk duo McGwyer Mortimer. He arrives on the titular remote island off the coast of Wales. He is under contract to play a show for a quirky widowed millionaire fan of his, Charles Heath (Tim Key). Herb is unaware that Charles had contracted the other half of McGwyer, former musician and ex-partner, Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) to perform.
She arrives with her new geeky birdwatcher husband, Michael (a drolly out-of-place Akemnji Ndifornyen), forcing Herb to contend with the situation’s awkwardness. Meanwhile, Charles plans to unite the two artists for his own small concert, with his immense wealth won by his two lottery winnings. With their excess emotional baggage at play, the three come to terms with their inner turmoil and turn their wallowing into a ballad.
The execution of comedy-dramas is a daunting task to undertake. A filmmaker and storyteller must balance the two genres or risk one overtaking the other and ruining the storytelling. In the case of this film, it is adapted the 2007 short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, directed by James Griffiths and starring and written by Basden and Key. Expanding the story from a short film to a feature-length movie with genre balance is an even more daunting prospect.
What is admirable is that while one traces its origins, it never feels like it is retelling a story stretched to feature-length. With beautiful Welsh vistas, inviting production design, and the beautifully elegiac musical score by Adem Ilhan, the film is strikingly cinematic for such a humble story. Speaking of humble, Griffiths, Basden, and Key know balancing genre scales is to write humble characters that are compelling in their flaws and humanity while sympathetic in their plight.
Herb has a prickly presence and appears standoffish while feeling like the whole world owes him. Basden provides great work as he is a fantastic foil to Key’s boisterous optimism while being poignantly understated as he opens up. His physicality for the part (as well as G. Magni Ágústsson’s lensing) makes him look like he could vanish into his surroundings at any second.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Charles is a humble people pleaser with an extroverted attitude that makes the term “awkward” feel like an understatement. Key strikes the perfect balance of affability, annoyance, and anguish as Charles. His jokey verbosity ranges from endearing to enervating, as if he would ever stop talking, he would instantly turn into an immovable golem. However, his tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve is disarmingly poignant, much like the best work of the late American actor John Candy.
The women are rays of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day. Sian Clifford plays a precious shopkeeper (who never has the specific stock that our leads want) and single mother that Charles has a fondness for, lending a sense of doting sweetness within her generosity. Mulligan has the biggest household name but relishes her screentime with her winsome charm and soulful longing. She is completely believable as an ex-folk-musician turned down-to-earth market vendor selling chutney in Portland, Oregon. Her chemistry with Basden is sweet, unrequited, and beautifully bashful, belying the crushing divide between nostalgia and reality.
The film’s greatest quality is its subtlety. It brims with pathos and warmth and resists becoming overly twee or melodramatic. Instead, Griffiths, Basden, and Key take less predictable paths with the characterisations, making their portrayals refreshingly realistic. The way they play the comedy never feels like a joke is told for the sake of it. It always informs characterisations and situations in which they find themselves. For example, there is a great scene where Charles and Herb play tennis and Charles reveals he has not had to perform a return serve in a long time.
Overall, The Ballad of Wallis Island is a heart-warming, emotionally stirring, and amiably amusing piece of work that transcends its humble origins and well-worn premise with wonderful performances, understated storytelling, and a marvelous balance between comedy and pathos. Highly recommended.
Summary: A heart-warming, emotionally stirring, and amiably amusing piece of work. Highly recommended.
4.5
Rich
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