Wild Rose ★★★★
LOOK up a film dictionary and Wild Rose should be the definition of a ‘feel-good film’. Chemists could prescribe this film for anyone having a bad day.
This is a rags to riches story but not in the literal sense. It’s about chasing your dream and coming to an understanding of how best to achieve it.
Jessie Buckley is captivating as a young single mother from the wrong side of the tracks in Glasgow whose driving ambition is getting to Nashville and becoming a professional Country singer.
But when we meet Jessie she is just finishing a one-year prison stint for possession of heroin and has two young children to re-connect with.
Jessie’s mother Marion, who has been looking after the kids in the interim, knows her daughter well; Jessie is the type of person who goes down the road for a packet of cigarettes and comes back two days later; the life of the party but always the one that ends up getting hurt or hurting those closest to her.
Can Jessie control her wild side and build a life with her children while at the same time avoiding the mundane future she despises and realising her lifelong ambition?
You’ll have to see the film to find out, but the great thing about this journey is its lack of cliché. Like Jessie herself, writer Nicole Taylor ignores conventions and expectations in forging her own path.
In Irish actress and singer Buckley she has a perfect vehicle to bring Rose-Lynn to life. This is only Buckley’s third film, her last was 2017’s romance/drama Beast that was popular at festivals and had a short Perth theatrical run.
In Wild Rose, Buckley gives a nuanced and heart-felt performance, full of pent-up energy that you realise can explode at any moment, either on-stage or, if you get her on a bad day, off-stage.
Buckley’s singing is terrific; whether you like Country music or not you can admire the skill and emotion involved. There are actually 21 songs on the soundtrack and she sings most of them, including originals and some covers. It should be a joy for Country music fans.
By the way, I keep using the term ‘Country’ because nothing gets Jessie’s back up more than people referring to what she does as ‘Country and Western’.
Veteran Julie Walters is very good as Marion and Sophie Okeonedo plays a small but pivotal role as a woman who tries to help Jessie fulfill her ambitions.
Downsides? Very few and really only one worth pursuing here.
Unfortunately, in maintaining maximum authenticity it can be difficult to follow some of the dialogue when it’s delivered in Scottish accents.
You’ll just have to see the movie twice – once in the cinema and later at home when you can whack on the subtitles.