Everyone tends to love an underdog story, and it would seem that a country singer that comes from Glasgow may be a perfect example. This is the basis for ‘Wild Rose’, the new film from Tom Harper (War and Peace, The Scouting Book for Boys).
Jessie Buckley (The Woman in White, The Last Post, Beast) stars as the titular Rose-Lynn, who dreams of going to Nashville, and becoming a country star. Despite her upbringing, she seemingly has a country music soul deep inside her and she sacrifices much in her life in pursuit of her dream. This unfortunately includes dedication to her children, who have been handed off to her Mother (Julie Walters – Paddington, Brooklyn, Harry Potter amongst many others!) following Rose being imprisoned for 12 months. After she gets out, she starts a new job being a ‘daily woman’, cleaning for Susannah (Sophie Okonedo – Christopher Robin, Hellboy, After Earth, Hotel Rwanda, Aeon Flux), who becomes her biggest supporter. With this new found impetus, she may finally make some progress, but things don’t quite go to plan.
On the face of it, this is a fairly standard underdog story, where the heroine has to overcome various obstacles and learn some life lessons on the way. Thanks to a brilliant script and intelligent, knowing approach by screenwriter Nicole Taylor though, Wild Rose delivers far more than that. What you get is a joyous experience, and this is topped off by a fantastic central performance from Jessie Buckley, who shines throughout. Rose-Lynn is imbued with a magnetic, intoxicating personality and Buckley is the life of the film. This should be a big stepping stone to even greater success for her.
Similarly, the legendary Julie Walters gives a great performance as the put upon mother, Marion, who only wants the best for her child. The rest of cast also do a fine job and fill out this pocket of Americana in an interesting manner, giving an unusual contrast to the depictions of Glasgow we’re used to.
Quite often what we see on film/tv is just the grittier side of the city, but here, while we do get some of the run down areas, we also get a more gentrified middle class enclave, and scenes in the ‘Grand Ole Opry’, the country themed venue Rose sings in (which is actually a real place).
Throughout, there is this sense of the clash of cultures, the lack of hope, and a pragmatic downtrodden sensibility, from which we are encouraged to will our heroine out of. At the same time, she represents a figure that refuses to grow up and face her responsibilities. It is most definitely a tale of how to find balance between two competing elements, that is a fight within all of us. While being so, it also cleverly manages to sidestep the formulaic beats that films of this nature can hit, and give a much more fulfilling narrative.
In some ways this follows in the footsteps of Little Voice, Billy Elliot, and Kinky Boots, as a very British story of the outsider finding themselves. As those films all became beloved, that’s not a bad path to follow and I can see Wild Rose gaining many fans.
Wild Rose is on General Release in April/May 2019
