“Wild Rose”
director: Tom Harper
cast: Jessie Buckley, Sophie Okonedo, Julie Walters
Never has there been a summer with so many music films, jukebox musicals and rock n roll spotlights. Several movies such as “Rocketman” have hit the top of the charts both musically and cinematically. Others are vying for such status. One such film in the running, “Wild Rose,” tells a relatively predictable tale but is propelled by a really talented lead — Irish singer Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn Harlan.
Without Buckley’s authentic and impassioned performance the film might have been far more run-of-mill but her expansive vocal chops makes this story of a young Scottish wanna-be country star faced with the choice between her kids and fame feels real.
Upon her release from a Scottish prison in Glasgow, Rose goes back to some of her deleterious ways while being constrained by an electronic anklet. Though reunited with her mother, son and daughter, she still craves to get out of Glasgow and head to in Nashville where she wants to make it as a country singer — something she had planned on before her jail stint. Rose gets a cleaning job, only to find an unlikely champion in the middle-class lady of the house (Sophie Okonedo) who tries to stage a concert for her to raise money for her Nashville effort. But she’s thwarted by her own self-doubt and sense of worthlessness — and by her benefactor’s husband, who threatens to reveal her criminal past. Forced to take responsibility, Rose turns away from the opportunity in favor of her kids — and scraps the concert.
Rose’s mother Marion (Julie Walters) has had a bellyful of her nonsense. While Rose copes with her restlessness and desire to hightail it, she also tries to mollify her mom and kids. Then, to everyone’s surprise, her mom gives Rose money to go to Nashville, feeling that her daughter should have a shot at fulfilling her dream, something her mom never had an opportunity to do.
Nonetheless, once in Nashville she realizes where her real feelings lie, knowing that her kids have to come first. But that’s not the end of it. Once Rose returns home, she doesn’t give up. Continuing her stint in the local Country music club, she gets to the “hearth” of it and employs her own hometown as the source material for her music. And in doings so, she becomes a mini-country star — as Scotland’s own favorite daughter.