WILD ROSE - Dir. Tom Harper

A Star is Born may have won plaudits and accolades in the last few months, but a star truly is born in Wild Rose, the story of an aspiring Glaswegian country singer, and her name is Jessie Buckley.

Buckley stars as Rose-Lynn Harlan, a live-wire who dreams of Nashville and all of its musical heritage and glory. After a brief spell at her majesty’s pleasure, she is more determined than ever to achieve her goal, but must face up to the realities waiting for her at home: her exasperated mother (Julie Walters) and her two young children, Wynonna and Lyle.


It’s not hard to find films with talented dreamers striving to rise above challenges that triumphantly suggest that a singular talent and hard work will eventually pay off. There’s just enough grit and an underlying honesty in the script by Nicole Taylor, writer of the BAFTA winning mini-series Three Girls, that elevates Wild Rose towards the top of the pack.

Rose-Lynn’s singular (or should that be narrow minded) determination to get to Nashville draws the ire of her mother Marion, who has looked after Wynonna and Lyle in Rose’s absence, and whose weariness suggests that she has been battling to control Rose’s wayward spirit for too long. Increasingly heated confrontations arise between the pair as Rose takes almost as many steps backwards and forwards.

Rose takes a job with a well-to-do family as a house cleaner where she develops a kinship with Susannah (Sophie Okonedo), who recognises her talent and uses her media connections to give Rose the boost her ambition needs. This sets up the central conflict that Rose navigates through the course of the film: balancing the opportunity presented to her by Susannah to kick-start her musical career with her responsibilities to Marion and her family.

There’s a well-worn path that these stories tend to follow and while the film doesn’t wholly upend them (and nor should it have to), it challenges cliches and keeps its characters firmly on the ground. Most pleasingly however is how the film doesn’t let Rose-Lynn off the hook for her past transgressions. There’s no easy get out, no revelation that Rose-Lynn was wrongly accused of her crimes. Her irresponsible streak gets in the way of her . You want her to succeed even when she frustratingly fails to help herself. She isn’t wholly likeable, but her determination to keep trying and trying is ultimately endearing.


At the centre of the story, and upon whose shoulders the entire film stands, is Jessie Buckley. Her startlingly assured turn in Michael Pearce’s psychological thriller Beast last year was one of the best of the year and performance as the tempestuous Rose-Lynn Harlan is as equally impressive. Buckley’s vocal skills. She can rouse the dozing crowds with the house band at the local country bar and also hold the stage with just a spotlight for company.

This culminates in an ending that feels both honest and earned. Her life may not have panned out as she dreamed, but Rose-Lynn has made peace with her lot in life, cherishing what she has and not what has drifted out of reach. She had always been able to sing but by the end of the film, Rose-Lynn has now found her voice.





WILD ROSE is due to be released in UK cinemas on 12th April 2019.

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