Power Ballad

Irish writer-director John Carney clearly subscribes to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” as a filmmaking philosophy. Carney’s movies always make prominent use of music in storytelling that unfolds with lots of humor and lots of heart. It’s a winning formula that has given us endearing little films like Once, Sing Street, and Begin Again as well as the Amazon TV series “Modern Love.” Three years after his last feature, Flora and Son, drew far less attention than it should have in a blink-and-miss release before hitting Apple TV, Carney returns to standard theatrical distribution with Power Ballad starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas.

Rudd plays Rick Power, the American lead singer of Bride & Groove, a serviceable wedding band in Ireland. The job is sometimes exhilarating, but also something of a painful reminder of the bigger dreams Rick abandoned years ago to settle down with his Irish wife Rachel (Marcella Plunkett) and their now teenaged daughter Aja (Beth Fallon). Wedding parties enjoy when the band plays “The Boys Are Back in Town” or “Message in a Bottle.” They clear out the dance floor when Rick dusts off his tender old original tunes.

One wedding held at a jaw-dropping estate proves to be especially exhilarating for Rick when he and the boys are joined on stage by friend of the groom Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), a boy band alumnus who still commands fame and attention as he pursues a solo adult career. After getting to duet, Rick and Danny reconnect and spend a whiskey-fueled night of collaboration, with Rick giving some valuable feedback to some of the tunes Danny has been working on. The two part on great terms; Danny even gifts his new jam session partner a classic guitar.

Six months later, though, Rick is shocked to hear one of the original compositions he shared with Danny being performed by Danny on the airwaves. “How to Write a Song Without You” proves to be massive hit for Danny, garnering millions of streams and generating interest in an American tour. Rick tries to get in touch with the 27-year-old, but is strong-armed by his management group, which is eager to dismiss his authorship claim. Complicating the matter is the fact that Rick has no proof whatsoever that he wrote the song; no demo, no video, not even a soul who can confidently testify to its existence or origin.

The situation weighs heavily on the expat, creating distance with his somewhat incredulous family and with the increasingly unfulfilled wedding band. With his sanity slipping, Rick decides to travel to Los Angeles with his closest bandmate (Peter McDonald, Carney’s co-writer) to try to track down and confront the flourishing pop singer.

Carney may always work from the same palette, but the stories he tells are never mistaken for one another. They are always fleshed out tales driven by complicated characters. This time out, Carney also has an established movie star in the lead role, something he hasn’t really had since casting Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley in 2014’s Begin Again (although Joseph Gordon-Levitt lent great support to the aforementioned Flora and Son). Rudd is a great fit for Carney’s brand of storytelling. Not only does he have a background as a bar mitzvah DJ that suits the part, but he also has an abundance of charisma, charm, and vulnerability. There is never any doubt we’re rooting for Rick to get the recognition he clearly deserves.

Jonas, the youngest of the three Jonas Brothers that introduced some younger millennials to pop music, may hail from both the music and acting realms, but he’s a little beyond his depth in the latter here. But that’s okay because Rudd, Carney, and McDonald pick up the slack and keep you fully invested in another fresh and compelling human interest story.

Carney probably isn’t besting Begin Again‘s $63 million worldwide gross anytime soon, but one gets the feeling that he’s far more interested in winning over those who watch his films than those who acquire and distribute them. That’s a good thing for us at a time when adult cinema has been largely deemed unfashionable by the profit-driven industry, especially in theaters. Carney is at ease in his niche of feel-good cinema and so too is the viewer familiar enough with him to know and appreciate the distinct, rewarding comforts of his brand.

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