THE STORY – Rick, a washed-up wedding singer, and Danny, a fading boy band star, bond over music and a late-night jam session. When Danny turns Rick’s song into a hit, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves.
THE CAST – Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor, and Sophie Vavasseur
THE TEAM – John Carney (Director/Writer) & Peter McDonald (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 108 Minutes
John Carney’s career is, no pun intended, the definition of playing the greatest hits, as his new musical-based dramedy “Power Ballad” plays perfectly into his filmography, which has lately been bludgeoned by his overt sentimentality, for better or for worse. He has had some great turns since his Academy Award-winning feature “Once”, such as “Sing Street” and “Begin Again”, but now, with this latest feature, it’s a wonder if Carney has cornered himself into crafting crowd-pleasing films that will fade from memory over time. With “Power Ballad,” Carney’s casting of a movie star like Paul Rudd plays in his skill set as an artist, allowing him to wrangle a moving lead performance in what is merely a heartwarming film about what is at the core of artistic inspiration.
In “Power Ballad,” Rudd plays Rick, a married father of one whose days as a famous musician are long past. He does, however, cling to the dream still despite working as a wedding singer with his band, picking up gigs throughout Ireland. Carney fancifully puts Rick into the mindset of a star, treating his work occasionally as moments of daydreaming on stage about what his life could have been if he hadn’t settled down and started a family. Audiences witness his small performances mentally transform into sold-out stadiums where Rick feels he should be, yet never will. Rick’s work, however, lead him to performing at a wedding with a superstar, Danny Wilson, played by Nick Jonas, who soon invites Rick over for a drunkenly-fueled studio session. Over the course of the film, the two men bond over their aspirations and desire to create something special, while acknowledging how difficult that may be. Before departing back to their separate lives, what was once a cherished moment for Rick soon becomes the bane of his existence as he watches a song Danny stole from him become a number-one hit that takes the world by storm.
Carney lets Rudd’s vivacity as an actor mesh with Rick’s decline into an understandable mental collapse, leading him to still shine through the madness of it all as Rick watches all those around him doubt not only his dreams but the possibility that he could create something as good as a Danny Wilson song. “Power Ballad” is far less of a Rudd-Jonas duology and far more of a showcase for Rudd, as Carney is far more interested in Rick’s experience compared to Danny’s. Jonas’s performance surely pulls from the feelings he himself experienced in forging his own path after his rise to fame with “The Jonas Brothers.” Danny is desperate to make a name for himself, something many artists struggle with, especially when they are associated with a certain group or sound for most of their careers. With that said, whenever he’s not sharing the screen in the few scenes he has with Rudd, Jonas delivers what is at best a serviceable performance, devoid of bringing out this internalized sadness from his character. Instead, he manages to only come out of his shell whenever Rudd can pull it out of him.
The sequence of the two of them creating music together is maybe Carney at his best, channeling the magic that moves audiences, yet it’s few and far between. Rudd shines plenty with Peter McDonald’s Sandy, Rick’s best friend and rocker who’s too loyal for his own good. McDonald, who co-wrote the screenplay with Carney, shares some of the funniest moments with Rudd, conjuring a far better rapport between the two than Jonas does. The rest of the ensemble is left to Havana Rose Liu, who is nothing more than a glorified cameo, and Jack Reynor, who is there to escalate the conflict between Rudd and Jonas’s characters.
What’s even harder to warp audiences’ minds around is a very mid ballad like “I Write This Song For You” becoming a global chart hit, especially when what we witness of Danny’s music that made him famous isn’t even that much better. To a degree, this aspect plays into Danny’s insecurities and his motivations for plagiarizing Rick’s work, as he’s someone with no true sound of his own. Carney does dig into something interesting about inspiration: how, in music, it’s an amalgam of origins that’s harder to define than in other art forms.
Still, the rest of the film settles for being a feel-good dramedy, with any depth merely trailing behind the tear-inducing monologues these characters deliver. At least Carney lands the plane with “Power Balled,” creating a finale that will surely whip up audiences’ emotions and at least ends the film on a high note.
