REVIEW: An absolute gem of a film - The Ballad of Wallis Island

The Ballad of Wallis Island is an absolute gem of a film, the kind of film that you just don’t want to end; the end of film that has got it all. It is quirky, poignant, heartfelt and funny – and utterly original. Precisely the kind of film that is far too good to hang around terribly long in the cinemas.

The premise is that McGwyer Mortimer (played by Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan) were a reasonably popular folk duo who split amidst a degree of acrimony some years before.

Living on a remote island, Charles (Tim Key who co-wrote the film Basden) is a double-lottery winning superfan of the duo, and with the promise of an absurd amount of money, he invites them both to his island – carefully not telling them that the other will be there.

He’s a motor-mouth, a distinctly odd but hugely endearing character who can neither stop talking nor stop making awful puns. Behind it all, though, there is a deep well of sadness – the reason, so naively, he has brought the folk stars back together.

It’s the strangest trio as McGwyer and Mortimer attempt to find their feet again with each other after all these years, she now happily married, he increasingly aware of the void in his life, his solo work no match for all that they created as a duo. And in the background, we’ve got Charles, and for the most part, we are wondering what on earth he is up to.

It is all beautifully, heart-breakingly revealed in a film which understates everything to reach maximum poignancy, a mini-masterpiece which you will want to savour again and again.