‘The Ballad Of Wallis Island’ Review: Carey Mulligan Hits Just The Right Note In A Melancholy Musical Romcom – Sundance Film Festival

deadline.com:

The snap, crackle and pop of vinyl marks the start of The Ballad of Wallis Island, a music-themed romcom that’s half whimsical com and half unrequited rom.

In the absence of a new film by John Carney, who has the template nailed down by now, audiences at Sundance lapped it up. Outside a festival atmosphere, however, its commercial prospects aren’t immediately clear, since the humor is exceedingly British, and the references often seem kind of dated (perhaps a result of the film’s 18 years in development after starting life as a Bafta-winning short in 2007).

The record being played is an album called Way Back When by McGwyer Mortimer, a folk duo who hit their peak in 2014, and the song—which tells “a story about a man who’s tired of life”—signals the arrival one half of the band, Herb Mortimer (Tom Basden), at a remote island.

The island is so remote that it doesn’t have a jetty, let alone a harbor, resulting in slapstick scenes as he tries to disembark the dodgy rowing boat that’s delivering him.