I love the niche that the Irish filmmaker John Carney has carved out for himself. His films — which include Once (2007), Begin Again (2014), Sing Street (2016), and Flora and Son (2023) — may be a bit heavy on the heartstring-tugging, but they all have a love for music. He's not just a fan, he's a purist who demands that music be genuine and organic. A song can be a hit, but it can't be a mere trend-follower, an empty exercise. It must come from the heart. Thus we have Power Ballad, which effortlessly continues with this theme.
Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is an American musician whose old band once had a minor hit back in the 1990s. During a tour to Ireland, he met and fell in love with his wife Rachel (Marcella Plunkett) and stayed there to raise his daughter Aja (Beth Fallon). Now he sings and plays with a wedding band, doing all popular cover songs. (When he tries to perform his own song, the wedding guests clear the floor.)
At their latest gig in a beautiful castle, they learn that the groom is an old pal of pop star Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), an ex-member of a popular boy band now struggling with his solo career. Danny is invited to join the band on stage, and he and Rick quickly bond. They spend the evening back in Danny's room, talking music and jamming. Rick plays a song that he has written. Back in Los Angeles, while stuck writing, Danny plays Rick's song. His girlfriend Marcia (Havana Rose Liu) encourages him to record it, and he buckles.
Rick hears the recorded song and begins a furious attempt to find out what happened, and possibly collect a co-writer credit and a paycheck. But Danny, under pressure from his manager Mac (Jack Reynor), is keeping silent. Finally Rick and his best pal and bandmate Sandy (Peter McDonald) impulsively travel to Los Angeles in the hopes of confronting Danny at one of his shows.
Carney and co-writer Peter McDonald make their two lead characters into fully-realized humans. We easily identify with Rick's sense of having been betrayed, and we can also relate to Danny's simmering guilt, which he must keep hidden at all times. (In a couple of tense moments, he almost cracks.) Other characters are less dimensional. Sandy, while lots of fun and very funny, is pretty much a typical "best friend" comic relief. And Danny's girlfriend Marcia, while set up as an interesting character, is suddenly dumped and vanishes from the movie.
It's really that night in the castle that ties the movie together. The men's bonding over love of music and making music is utterly freeing, and creates a bond between them. That scene lingers over everything else in the film. We can feel the dishonesty in Danny's hit songs, just as we can feel the honesty and joy in the cover jams that Danny plays at small weddings. But the big surprise is that Power Ballad is not just a dude's movie. Without giving too much away, it turns into a delightful father-daughter story as well. It's a gem, a fine addition to any playlist.
