“The Ballad of Wallis Island” is a 2025 comedy-drama directed by James Griffiths, and written by Tim Key and Tom Basden. It is based on an earlier short that won an Edinburgh Film Festival award in 2008. The film is about a fictional folk music duo, McGwyer Mortimer, invited to perform for an eccentric, reclusive superfan on his remote Wallis Island. It is a bittersweet comedy with Irish music and romance thrown in that is funny, sad and quietly life affirming. It has been likened to a big-hearted consoling Christmas hug. “The Ballad of Wallis Island” contemplates a musical career in freefall and asks why the duo are so desperate for cash that they are persuaded to do such a sad, silly gig in a crumbling house on a remote island. Tim Key as Charles, is pleasantly odd, hyper and playful, but what are his motives for hosting the mystery gig? Tom Basden as Herb is excellent, all wounded ego and slumped shoulders. Basden also wrote and performed the beautiful soundtrack. Carey Mulligan is brilliant as Nell with her conflicted nostalgia for the past. But overall the film is simple but not simplistic and it steers clear of mawkishness. Instead, it is full of hopefulness about human connection and how the men in the story build each other back up.

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