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Paul Rudd is one of the most likeable movie stars now working. He's adroit at comedy and while in many of his films he has an everyman quality, he can play more than nice guys, as the offbeat Friendship showed.
Power Ballad could have been a much darker movie in the vein of Friendship or something like The King of Comedy. Keeping it a light drama was probably the wise move in commercial terms, and it works. While it's not profound, it's a very appealing, bittersweet movie.
Rudd plays Rick Power, an expat singer and songwriter in Ireland whose youthful rock band never really got anywhere. Now he makes a living as lead singer for a wedding band, singing other people's hits (Celebrate, Maneater, lots of bangers). Life isn't too bad - he has a lovely wife, Rachel (Marcella Plunkett), and daughter, Aja (Beth Fallon) - even if his dreams went unfulfilled. It's something many, if not most, people can probably relate to from their own lives.
At one gig he meets Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), an old friend of the groom who's a former boy band member struggling to establish a serious solo career. Both men are frustrated in their different ways, and in a thoughtful, believable sequence, they bond during an impromptu late-night jam session where Rick plays one of his original, unfinished songs for Danny. The younger man even gives Rick a valuable guitar, which might be a subconscious way of atoning for what happens next.
Several months later, Rick is in a shopping mall when he hears a familiar tune playing overhead. It's his song, performed by Danny. The younger man wrote a bridge, and the song has lots of professional production, but it's Rick's, and he has received no notice, credit, or money for the ironically titled How to Write a Song (Without You), which is rapidly becoming a huge international hit.
Rick, of course, feels devastated and betrayed but he can't find any tangible evidence he wrote it and nobody recalls hearing it, so there's no legal avenue to pursue. His many attempts to contact Danny's ruthless manager Mac (Jack Reynor) are fruitless and his frustration, obsession and anger begin to affect his work and relationships with family and friends, even his best mate Sandy (co-writer Peter McDonald).
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For Rick, it's not just about the money. It's personal, for more reasons than one. To what lengths is he willing to go in pursuing his claim? And is it worth risking everything he's got?
Director and co-writer John Carney is very much a music man. He played bass for a band (The Frames) and his previous films include Once and Sing Street, where music also plays a big part.
There's a feeling of authenticity in the musical elements, from the high energy of the wedding gigs followed by the duller morning-after journeys home, to the genuine feeling of connection between two musicians that Rick and Danny briefly share.
Carney and McDonald seem to like most of their many characters and give at least some of them layers. Danny, despite some qualms, is weak and selfish, letting the sharkish Mac do his dirty work, but he's also under a lot of pressure in a fiercely competitive industry (something Jonas, who was in a boy band with his brothers, would understand). Not that this is much of an excuse.
The later stages of the movie stretch credulity as Rick decides to take drastic action, but by this time it's hard not to be invested and to hope things will somehow work out for the best.
The movie might have ended a few minutes before it did and still have been satisfying, but Carney and McDonald find a way to end the story that works well. Power Ballad has something to say about creativity, integrity and happiness.
