The phrase ‘The parts were greater than the sum’, sounds like the title of one of those clichéd, hook-laden, say-nothing songs, so identified with the Nashville music scene of today – this sanitised version of country rock enough to make founding father Gram Parsons turn in the Louisiana grave where he has lain for the better part of fifty years.
Indeed, before his untimely death in September 1973, Parsons had even baulked at the first two Eagles’ albums, labelling them ‘inauthentic.’
‘WILD ROSE’ (Dir Tom Harper, 101 minutes), has more than enough country tinged rock (think updated take on ‘Already Gone’ by, you guessed it, the Eagles), to start Parsons spinning. It also has a smattering of cliché – but this tale of Rose-Lynn Harlan (Jessie Buckley), a former Glasgow-felon who dreams of hitting the Nashville big time as a country singer, boasts just enough passion and panache to come through as an engaging film.
As the single mother ex-con with Grand Ole Opry ambitions, the central performance by Buckley is excellent, this talented young actress equally adept irrespective of whether the scene requires humour or humility.
Buckley receives superb support from Julie Walters (Marion), who simmers with quiet exasperation at the waywardness of her daughter, whose desire for fame has only increased during her time inside – twelve months when Granny Marion has given the two young children Rose-Lynn mothered by the time she was eighteen, a far more stable existence than their errant mother has ever provided.
Leaving prison to a shout of ‘go and be the next Dolly Parton’ from a fellow inmate, Rose-Lynn returns to a Glasgow council estate electronically tagged, the relationship between daughter and mother fractious and unaffectionate – Marion aghast and bewildered at the cavalier way Rose-Lynn behaves toward her children. By way of appeasement she lands a cleaning job at the large house of wealthy business woman Susannah (a fine turn by Sophie Okonedo), whom she converts into a country music fan.
In Rose-Lynn, Susannah sees a young woman with talent but also a dream – her own (restricted these days by two children) having reached a ceiling now she is rich and living in a mansion.
Not yet aware that Rose-Lynn also has two kids, Susannah through her London business connections manages to secure Rose-Lynn an audience with BBC Radio Two Country Music Presenter Bob Harris – the ‘Whispering One’ delivering an agreeable cameo. In showing her the studio where the likes of Gretchen Peters and Metraca Berg have recorded sessions – the excellence of their work far removed from the twangy tosh Rose-Lynn seems to favour – Harris sends her home with advice not to give up and to start writing her own songs.
On her return to Glasgow Rose-Lynn has a gig to play for Susannah, entertaining the guests at her birthday party, but a domestic crisis finally brings the ‘dream versus duty’ dichotomy to a head – her future hopes of being a country star disappearing at this point, along with Susannah from the story.
Her aspirations of fame apparently in tatters, Rose-Lynn resolves to be a much better mother and knuckles down to a (different) cleaning job. But salvation arrives close to home, the thwarted intentions of one generation providing redemption for the next – the final twenty minutes of the piece veering between comforting and contrived.
Needless to say it includes a trip to Nashville, but rather than make it as a sweetheart of the rodeo (last but one of my Gram Parsons references), she goes back to her roots to gain favour as a homecoming queen, so to speak.
Despite some fast and loose elements to the story (Rose-Lynn’s conviction for a drug offence is somewhat vague, the father – or fathers – of her children are never mentioned, the sudden disappearance of Susannah), ‘Wild Rose’ manages to succeed due to the deft but differing performances of Walters and Buckley – whose impressive singing voice completes an admirable display of acting.
At various times Rose-Lynn sings songs closer to country-schlock than country rock, but all the while her arm bears a tattoo that reads: ‘Three chords and the truth.’
Now that Gram Parsons would approve of.
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE’ – an acclaimed thriller available as an Amazon Kindle Book.