The Ballad of Wallis Island: A Perfectly Aged Tale

By Chris Knight

Rating: A

Talk about getting the band back together. In 2007, British director James Griffiths collaborated with writers-performers Tom Basden and Tim Key to make The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island. The 26-minute comedy was nominated for a BAFTA and won the best British short at the Edinburgh festival.

Now, a mere 18 years later, the three have reunited to remake the tale, with a larger budget, a bigger cast, and an added love story that feels like the perfect icing on the narrative cake.

The basic beats remain the same. Herb McGwyer (Basden), a self-obsessed musician who remains productive if no longer as popular as he used to be, arrives by dinghy on remote Wallis Island, where he’s been hired to play a gig. Meeting him on the shore is Charles (Key), the effusive, garrulous manager of Wallis Lodge, which he explains is “a hotel in all but name. And facilities.” In fact, it’s just Charles’ house.

Herb slowly cottons on to what we clever viewers have figured out from the start (or even earlier, if we’ve watched the trailer). Charles has used a portion of his large and serendipitous fortune to bring Herb to the beach near his home to play a gig for an audience of one.

And that’s not even the half of it. Or rather, it’s exactly the half of it. The next day, the boat drops off another musical guest, Nell Mortimer, played by Carey Mulligan. She and Herb used to be a popular duo back in the day. They were an item, too. Both those connections have been sundered. Nell left the business and got married. Charles wants to bring them back together — if not romantically, then at least musically.

The Ballad of Wallis Island is a wondrous example of British cringe comedy. (And no wonder, as Key has previously played the awkward sidekick to Steve Coogan’s equally awkward Alan Partridge.) Herb is naturally reticent and withdrawn, while Charles is the type who cannot leave a silent moment alone and will gladly spend 10 minutes explaining the thought process behind a pun like “Dame Judi Drench.”

Where the feature expands on the earlier short is with the addition of a love interest. Or rather several. Nell arrives on Wallis Island with her nice-guy husband (Akemnji Ndifornyen) tagging along, although he soon heads off on a birdwatching expedition — the screenplay’s single most head-scratching decision. One senses that her breakup with Herb — both melodic and amorous — was easier on her than it was on him.

Charles, meanwhile, has a tragic backstory involving a former wife that colours his every mood but which he can’t bring himself to discuss out loud. He is also clearly smitten with a local shopkeeper (Sian Clifford of Fleabag fame), a fact everyone but he seems to recognize. It’s all very sweet, and thankfully never quite tips over into saccharine.

In a weird way, the 18-year gap has done wonders for the cast. (It’s the exact opposite of what happened to the Indiana Jones franchise!) Back in 2007, Key was barely 30, Basden was in his 20s, and Mulligan was still two years away from the day I discovered her at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of An Education. (You’re welcome!)

Now the male performers are comfortably in their 40s, with the extra pounds — do I mean weight or finances? You decide — that maturation brings. Basden is more believable as a jaded performer living on the outskirts of has-been-dom. Key’s character looks old enough to have fully settled into his weird mannerisms, and to have felt true grief. (I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but it aids the exposition.) And Mulligan has the star power to make the film happen.

It’s a lovely, quirky tale, full of ruminations on regret, love coming from (and directed to) unexpected quarters, and a bizarre broken faucet that won’t not work. That last bit is a gag lifted directly from the earlier version of the film, which you can find on YouTube, although I’d suggest watching if after you see the new one, for a more spoiler-free experience.

The demo tape may be charming, but the final studio album is a real keeper.

The Ballad of Wallis Island. Directed by James Griffiths. Starring Tim Key, Tom Basden, and Carey Mulligan. In theatres April 4.