Inspiring and triumphant, the music drama “Wild Rose” serves as a foot-stomping rebuke to the exasperating phonies who claim to love all music, “except rap and country.” From its opening moments, this stirring musical drama about an aspiring singer rocks, kicking off with a southern-fried cover of Scottish band Primal Scream’s “Country Girl” and running through songs originally sung by Wynonna Judd, Emmylou Harris, Chris Stapleton, and Patty Griffin. Those are big shoes to fill, but actress and singer Jessie Buckley steps into their cowboy boots with an effortlessness that creates a jaw-dropping, star-making performance.
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“Wild Rose” is also a clever dilemma of geography. The movie isn’t set in the South or even in the United States; instead, its country-obsessed heroine Rose-Lynn Harlan (Buckley) lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and she can’t wait to escape to Nashville. But it’s not as simple as packing up and leaving for Tennessee. Rose-Lynn is introduced on the day she’s released from jail, forced to wear an ankle monitor to keep a curfew during her probation. Her mother (Julie Walters) has taken care of her two children, naturally named Wynonna and Lyle (Daisy Littlefield and Adam Mitchell), while she was in prison, but now they’re Rose-Lynn’s responsibility and problem. She takes a job as a cleaning woman for Susannah (Sophie Okonedo), who quickly recognizes Rose-Lynn’s talent and wants to help her find fame as a singer.
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Proximity to dreams and the distances that make them seemingly untenable are essential in “Wild Rose.” The struggling singer sings about Kentucky, New Mexico, and Alabama, and she can’t see how Glasgow fits into her hopes and goals. Rose-Lynn yearns for freedom and pictures Nashville as her only option, citing the lack of opportunities for country singers in the U.K. She’ll do anything she can to escape, and she’ll have to learn to find a figurative voice to match her literal one, so she does more than sing other people’s songs.
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“Wild Rose” is the latest in a run of films about fictional female singers struggling in one way or another, starting with last year’s “A Star is Born” and “Vox Lux,” and continuing with 2019’s “Her Smell” and “Teen Spirit.” Directed by Tom Harper, “Wild Rose” is among the better films in that group, largely thanks to Buckley’s performance, but the behind-the-scenes team deserves credit too. “Wild Rose” is stirring in all its musical numbers, but there’s substance between them that sustains the film. Harper somehow moved from the forgettable, “The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death” to this drama, and there’s style in every frame with thoughtful, lovely cinematography from George Steel (“Robin Hood“), though more consistency in some of its efforts would make for a better movie. For example, one scene finds Rose-Lynn singing while she cleans, surrounded by an imagined backing band in the corners of the home, but this is the only time the audience witnesses such entertaining daydream escapism. Screenwriter Nicole Taylor previously wrote for British TV, and she does solid work here; the dialogue isn’t just filler between songs. Instead, it nicely builds the character arc of Rose-Lynn, who starts steeped in rage and immaturity, and then blossoms into something stronger.
Beyond Buckley’s pure, powerful singing voice, there’s a real joy in her work here, particularly when Rose-Lynn is performing. Her raw talent is mesmerizing, whether she’s on stage or singing in her socks while vacuuming. But she’s delightful elsewhere too; there’s a real vulnerability in the performance, particularly in how her character relates to her children. Buckley skillfully balances depicting the love she has for her kids with her inability to deeply connect to them given her absence and desire to flee and pursue her true dreams.
As rousing as “Billy Elliot,” “Wild Rose” doesn’t just promise the arrival of a new talent in Rose-Lynn Harlan, but a fully formed and authentic story of pining for something more meaningful in our lives and the ability to know when to not settle for less. Nevertheless, Buckley is the gem here, and it’s exciting to watch her in a role that feels made for her and that should make her someone to watch for years to come. From its opening notes, “Wild Rose” puts a lump in your throat as you realize you’re watching a star being born. [A-]
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