Rated: M
Directed by: Tom Harper
Written by: Nicole Taylor
Produced by: Faye Ward
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Sophie Okenedo, James Harkness, Jamie Sives and Julie Walters.
Wild Rose is a Glasgow county music film opening on Rose-Lynn’s last day, ‘in the jail’: she’s wild and free and ready to pick up her dream of becoming a country (not western) singer.
Three Cords and the Truth.
That’s what Rose-Lynn (Jessie Buckley) has tattooed on her forearm.
But like the tag on her ankle and the curfew she must keep while on probation, Rose-Lynn is tied-down with the responsibility having two kids, each born before she turned eighteen.
With the kids left with granny (Marion, played by Julie Walters) while she was put away for a year, it’s like she’s forgotten she’s a mother.
How is she going to get to Nashville and become a famous country singer and look after two kids?
I find there’s a particular darkness to these UK, character-driven films, like the cold of the place brings a heaviness with all the wooly jumpers and indoor living – not that Rose-Lynn was partial to jumpers, she was more about denim skirts and white cowboy boots.
Wild Rose has that same dry heaviness broken with golden light brought by this incredible voice from the bratful Rose-Lynn. It brought tears to my eyes when she sang, every single time. So by the end of the film the tears were streaming because what was heavy, turned into life-affirming. Like the heaviness of everything else made her voice sound more pure. Which is what country music is, I guess.
Which is something writer Nicole Taylor wanted to share, “The way the emotionality in it helps people open up, certainly in places such as Glasgow. I’m from Glasgow and all my life I’ve been obsessed with Country music. I think it’s popular in places and among people who are not used to talking about their feelings. Who might not even know their own feelings. But when they hear Country – which is raw and pure and unashamedly emotional – it’s a way to process things and have a cathartic experience [….] It’s a language for the emotionally inarticulate – and that’s Rose-Lynn!”
And Jessie Buckley was great for this role.
I could relate to the young lass and her Gallus behaviour (as the Glaswegians would say, meaning full of cheek, irrepressible, doesn’t care if she’s rude, but not in an obnoxious way). Middle class and missing her youth, Susannah (Sophie Okenedo) employing Rose-Lynn as her ‘day woman’ (cleaner) introduces this torn and talented singer as light; like she’s a breath of fresh air.
But Rose-Lynn has been unlucky learning her life lessons. Except for that voice.
And we see the affect her need, to use her talent instead of taking responsibility, has on her mother – the performance from Julie Walters has to be noted here, with that look of sadness, realisation and pride in her eyes.
It’s about this journey with the music used to show Rose-Lynn’s talent, what she was born to be, versus the responsibility of her choices, her kids and eventually her life.
So it’s more about Rose-Lynn learning what she really wants out of life and how her choices have landed her where she never saw coming while dreaming about where she thought she should be.
More family drama than expected but a solid story with some beautiful moments.
