Joseph Moser
A wise man once told me that “humor conceals a deep sadness.” In that spirit, “The Ballad of Wallis Island” is a gentle comedy about profound loss. The movie has many virtues: two multilayered lead performances, three fine supporting turns, excellent original songs, and gorgeous scenery. If you’d like to feel a little better about humanity, you should seek out this film at the Savoy Theater.
“The Ballad of Wallis Island” centers on two demoralized men: Charles (Tim Key), a widowed lottery winner living on the titular (but fictional) Welsh island, and Herb (Tom Basden), a successful musician whose creative peak has long since passed. As Herb’s biggest fan, Charles has hired the singer-songwriter to spend a few days with him and play a gig for “less than a hundred” spectators, but the host has prepared surprises for his reluctant guest with the design of engineering a reunion.
The film builds narrative momentum slowly in the first half, and while its deliberate pace might frustrate some viewers, this tempo parallels the low-key vibe of Herb’s folk-pop tunes, which feature more and more prominently as the film goes on. The relaxed pace also helps develop the easy chemistry between the two lead actors, as Charles feverishly strives to connect with his famous guest and Herb merely longs for a few moments of privacy. Undoubtedly, one reason the performances of Key and Basden seem so unforced is that they have inhabited these characters since 2007, when the two wrote and starred in a short film version of this story. They are the screenwriters of this 2025 feature as well.
Basden displays exemplary comic restraint. He transcends the straight-man role by embodying creative exhaustion and midlife angst. A lesser actor (and writer) might overreact to Charles’s well-intentioned but intrusive antics, but as Herb, Basden seems too tired and disappointed in himself to muster much rage.
Key’s performance as Charles is equally impressive. Exasperating Herb with endless banter, Charles reveals his vulnerability and desolation. As gradually becomes clear, his stream of verbiage is a coping mechanism: the loquaciousness of the lonesome. In keeping with this subtle characterization, the film treats Charles’s backstory with remarkable delicacy. This approach makes the brief flashes of the character’s mournful inner life all the more powerful. For Charles, like for so many of us, favorite songs are bound up with life’s sublimest moments, and as years pass, these melodies can conjure joyful, fleeting memories in a way that is both lovely and gut-wrenching.
Alongside Key and Basden, Carey Mulligan shines as a pivotal figure from Herb’s past. In addition, Akemnji Ndifornyen effectively portrays the yang to Basden’s yin, and Sian Clifford charms in the role of a hard-working single mother and shopkeeper. The island itself has a strong presence in the film, generating both isolation and intimacy, and the seaside vistas are one great reason to make the effort to catch the film in the theater.
The songs, too, are best experienced in the cinema. Basden wrote them all, and he sings and accompanies himself on guitar exquisitely, occasionally joined on vocals by Mulligan. If you enjoy the songs in “Once” and other musical films by John Carney but wish the tunes had more subtlety, then “The Ballad of Wallis Island” is a film you will savor. The lyrics are earnest, insightful, and rarely sappy. At one point, Charles comments that the singing of Herb and Nell (Mulligan) singing “leaves [him] wanting more,” and the film indeed takes that tack with the music, never lingering too long on any performance or diverting attention from the characters’ compelling problems.
Humor and sadness coexist beautifully in this film, much like the words and music of a funny breakup song. Some scholars argue that genre movies function by asking vexing questions — such as “How can love conquer all in a class-conscious society?” — and supplying answers for the audience in the form of narratives. These answers are often simplistic, but they keep viewers returning for more of the same. If “The Ballad of Wallis Island” poses a question, it is “How can grief be managed and possibly overcome?” Fortunately, this film has the intelligence and grace to provide us answers that are honest but incomplete.
“The Ballad of Wallis Island” plays at the Savoy through May 8.
