Wild Rose review: A quality drama worth your time
It could be a companion piece to A Star is Born, but this quality, rags-to-riches drama is worth persevering with, writes Leigh Paatsch.
Leigh Paatsch
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Those seeking refuge from the torrent of superheroes, sequels and silliness washing through cinemas every other week should be giving Wild Rose a major bump up their must-see list.
This is a quality drama that keeps hustling for (and largely finds) better things, and boasts writing, performances and direction charged with a similar work ethic.
Not all movies try as hard as this, and what rewards Wild Rose does reap, it earns them the right way.
On first impressions, Wild Rose shapes quite simply as a rags-to-riches tale of a country-and-western singer hailing from the not-so-Nashville environs of Glasgow.
However, it turns out there is more than meets the eye (or indeed, serenades the ear) going on here.
Extend Wild Rose a little patience, and it will be the redemption that may or may not arrive for its troubled protagonist that keeps you leaning forward intently.
When we first meet 23-year-old Rose-Lynn Harlan (a blazing, star-making burst of acting from the unknown Jessie Buckley), this young Scottish single mother has just finished a spell in jail.
The events of her first night out of lockdown — renewing amorous acquaintances with an ex, then hitting a bar and heading for its stage — make it worryingly clear Rose will have trouble acclimatising to a freedom that feels anything but liberating.
Reluctant to reconnect fully with her two young children, Rose miraculously parlays a part-time cleaning job into a full-on shot at stardom as a compelling country singer.
Whether Rose hits that target will all come down to the white lies, black moods and colourful choices undoubtedly affecting her aim.
The combined influence of two very different women could ultimately be the making or breaking of Rose, even if she often seems oblivious to their continued presence in her life.
Marion (Julie Walters) is Rose’s warily supportive, yet justifiably suspicious mother. It is she who has more or less raised her daughter’s offspring as her own. The deep tensions that run between the pair are also evidence of an unbreakable bond.
Then there is Susannah (Sophie Okonedo), Rose’s well-to-do employer with the connections that could make a dream become reality.
A solid, no-frills effort on all fronts — don’t be afraid to come at Wild Rose as a companion piece of sorts to A Star is Born, if that works for you — with Buckley’s immense array of talents there for all to see.
Wild Rose (M)
Director: Tom Harper (Woman in Black 2)
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Sophie Okonedo, Julie Walters, Jamie Sives
Rating: ***1/2
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