Wild Rose

by Philip Price

Director: Tom Harper 
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters & Sophie Okonedo 
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour & 41 minutes  

We meet Jessie Buckley's Rose-Lynn as she is being released from a stint in prison at the beginning of “Wild Rose” and immediately understand how out of whack her priorities are when she stops to see a chap who still lives with his mum to get in a quick shag before going to her mother's house to see her two children.

This is indicative of the type of person Rose is and, unfortunately, the type of person we'll be dealing with for the next two hours. Rose is someone who can't help but get in her own way and while this can arguably make for a tragic foil to our hero it's hard to place that foil in the hero role and not become immensely irritated with the movie and the character as a whole. I unashamedly love movies about music, the music business and struggling artists searching for that big break, but Rose-Lynn isn't so much searching for her big break as she is waiting for it and thus is the reason “Wild Rose,” at least for me, doesn't work as a tale of redemption.

In short, Rose is irritating because she has this goal of being a country singer from Glasgow (a unique and fun little idea, for sure) yet she doesn't possess the focus for it and as far as one can tell by the developments in the story, she hasn't even done enough research to know what she should be focusing on. After getting a job as a maid at the wealthy Susannah's (a wonderful Sophie Okonedo) and then convincing Susannah she has a real talent, Susannah sticks her neck out for Rose organizing a meeting with the BBC's "Whispering Bob" Harris to which the takeaway is that Rose should start writing her own songs. How has she not already written her own songs?! She's closer to 30 than she is 20, wanted to be a singer her entire life, and hasn't picked up on the fact she probably needs a few originals in her back pocket?! WTF?!? She complains she doesn't know what to write about in this interaction with Harris and then literally a scene or two later complains to her mother (Julie Walters) that she's just, "got 12 months in jail and left behind two kids." Effing USE IT!!!!! That's some Johnny Cash shit right there! I expected this to be a turning point of sorts for Rose after which she might pen a tune that was then relayed back to Harris who would then distribute it to a few contacts in Nashville whose interest would be piqued at least by the concept if not the tune itself, but while that would make logical sense in real life I understand it's not as dramatic and that “Wild Rose” is still a movie. “Wild Rose” also can't seem to let go of the fact it has to remind everyone it's a movie through to the very end either.

So, there's no plan, no songs, no demo, but there is this hope of going to Nashville and simply being discovered. The movie wants to play it as if Rose is naive to these things or maybe just emphasize the fact once more of how ignorant she truly is, which is fine-that can work, but as the film plays on the familiar structure of these types of stories the bare-bones of said structures become more visible and it's distractingly obvious how much “Wild Rose” is using cheap tropes to garner drama from this narrative that doesn't really have the circumstances to justify it.

Getting into spoiler territory here, so be warned: This is one of those movies where the resolution of the film climaxes with the characters making greater sacrifices that were actually necessary all for the sake of the drama; because this is so obvious, viewers don't feel so much sympathy for these characters as they are annoyed by them. I've always had problems with movies that place characters in circumstances where they have to choose between opportunity and personal obligation when the personal obligation is something that could be reconciled literally any other time were, they able to keep the rest of their life balanced. Again, I understand dramatic tension and all, but Jesus!

And then there's Nashville. Rose eventually goes, but as previously stated she has no real plan, no songs, not even lyrics in a notebook and doesn't seem to have done a lick of work before going there to try and book gigs or make contacts or anything. She goes on a wish and a wish isn't enough. Worst of all, what ultimately amounts to a journey of self-discovery costs her poor mother her retirement. I sure hope finding out that country singers are a dime a dozen in the Country Music Capital of the World and that in Glasgow country music singers are one in a million was worth your peace of mind and self-preservation, Ms. Walters. 

"No Place Like Home" my ass, Rose is just a child who can't move herself out of her own way to get to where she wants to go, so she instead winds up attempting to make the most of where she's at and telling herself its good enough. Honestly though, this is probably for the best because ol' Rose-Lynn would probably be dead quicker than Nikki Sixx almost was were she to ever get a sip of fame.