‘Power Ballad’ Review: A Pop Hit in a Moodier Key

Some directors’ movies have a distinctive look. John Carney’s movies have a distinctive sound. The same way you can spot a Steven Spielberg film by the wide-eyed close-ups, or a Spike Lee joint by the gliding tracking shots, a Carney film is instantly recognizable from the music the characters listen to, and especially what they play.

In a John Carney movie, music is like a beacon of light in dark times, shot through with plaintive guitars and soaring harmonies. As soon as you see (and hear) Power Ballad’s two paired heroes, ambitious dreamers with lovely voices and a way with melody, it’s clear only one filmmaker could have made it. (The Irish setting is another big clue.)

But Power Ballad isn’t just a case of a director rehashing his greatest hits — even though the most famous song from Carney’s most famous movie makes a cameo. While it begins in similar fashion to nearly all of his movies — with an unlikely collaboration sparking sonic kismet and a host of catchy tunes — it also takes those familiar tropes in some welcome new directions.

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That’s all the more appropriate because a new direction is precisely what one of the main characters wants in his own career. That’s Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas) a former member of a huge boy band. The group broke up and the other members have gone on to solo success ... but not Danny. He’s still looking for his first big hit, the one that can show people what he’s capable of beyond the heavily manufactured world of pop stardom.

He finds it in the unlikeliest of places: At a wedding in Ireland. The band playing the affair — “The Bride and Groove” — is fronted by an American expat named Rick Power (Paul Rudd), who decades prior was a hot young musician not unlike Danny. Then he met a woman at a gig in Ireland, had a kid, and decided to settle down there.

Rick might have buried his rock star dreams when he became a dad, but they all come bubbling back to the surface when he meets Danny. And the two don’t just meet; after Danny joins Rick’s band for a rousing cover of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” during the wedding reception, he and Rick wind up hanging out for the rest of the night, drinking, smoking, and jamming. The two bond over their shared love of music and writing, and after a few beers and joints, Rick plays a fragment of a tune he’s tinkered with for years called “How to Write a Song (Without You).”

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From here, there’s an obvious way a film by John Carney — who previously gave us sweetly uplifting rock musicals like Once, Sing Street, and Flora and Son — might proceed. The typical Carney path would lead to an unexpected partnership yielding renewed hopes for both men. But this is not that sort of John Carney film. Months after Rick and Danny’s hang, Rick is out shopping, stressing out about the £90 a new pair of shoes is going to cost him, when he hears “How to Write a Song” echoing through the mall. It turns out Danny, desperate for a hit to appease his impatient record label (and to impress his girlfriend), finished Rick’s tune and passed it off as his own.

That makes Power Ballad as much a story about middle-aged disappointment and finding meaning in something other than wealth and fame as it is a feel-good celebration of music’s ability to bring people together. It’s also a movie about seeing another side of Paul Rudd beyond the cheerful, quippy type he’s settled into in his last decade or so of Marvel movies and mainstream comedies. He’s got a good sparring partner in Nick Jonas, who has a lovely voice and plenty of charisma, and delivers a Danny who’s neither a saint or a monster. He’s cocooned inside a bubble of celebrity and privilege, and comes to value things that are “real” above everything else. The best compliment you can give Jonas’ performance is that is exactly what he brings to the character.

Rudd also has a bunch of very funny (and occasionally very sweet) scenes with Irish actor Peter McDonald as Rick’s loyal best friend Sandy, who is the only person who believes Rick’s story about writing Danny’s latest hit, and eventually accompanies him on his quixotic journey to prove it.

But ultimately, this movie is a duet, and a love story about music, if not the music business. As Power Ballad ended, I did feel like for all its many strengths, its original songs, including “How to Write a Song (Without You),” didn’t quite measure up with the ones in Sing Street or even Carney’s recent drama Flora and Son. Then I caught myself humming “How to Write a Song” as I got on the subway home. And again as I walked my dog later that night. And I decided to retract that complaint. Carney’s movies always seem to deliver in that department.

RATING: 8/10