Power Ballad was a mystery screening and I was very disappointed if I am going to be completely honest. I saw the trailer and it looked fairly empty in terms of story and despite having Paul Rudd, it was the idea that he was sharing the screen with one of the Jonas brothers that made me doubtful that this would be a good viewing experience.
It seems to be a universal impossibility to dislike Paul Rudd. Even in something that isn't perhaps on par with a lot of his other stuff, Paul Rudd has the enviable skill of elevating whatever he is in. As Rick he is someone who is in a band that sings at weddings and uses his skills to help Danny come up with some cool lyrics during a drinking session. They even manage to make it plausible that an American would be living happily in suburban Ireland which isnt as easy to do as you might think but the explanation that Rudd gives worked for me. I think if it had been someone else then it wouldn’t have had the same effect. To be fair to Nick Jonas, he was perfectly fine as Danny. Playing someone who seems desperate for a hit after years in a boy band is perhaps something that he could lean into but despite having made a shed load of money off the back of someone else’s work might normally make me dislike them, Jonas still comes across as likeable. It is perhaps helped by a scene where he suggests giving Rick some money but is stopped by his manager. The pair work well together and even though they spend most of the film separate, they still manage to compliment each others part of the story.
The supporting cast is good as well with Sandy (Peter McDonald) being an unexpected comedic sidekick to Rick. During the LA portion of the film he becomes the most entertaining part of the film. Havana Rose Liu makes her second appearance in a film I have seen this year after appearing in Tuner but this is a smaller role and doesnt really add much to the story.
The early scenes of the singing left me slightly worried that this film would be terrible. It was clear that they singing was added on in dubbing which is perhaps understandable for Paul Rudd but as Nick Jonas is a singer in real life it seems obvious to have Jonas sing live when it was being recorded. That was as bad as it got a the singing later on seemed to either be done at the time or the dubbing was better.
The ending is slightly absurd. So after spending most of the film making it clear there is no evidence that Rick co-wrote the song, his daughter who just a few days earlier was in a car accident and had her arm in a sling yet it miraculously disappear, comes across a video which shows that he sung the lyrics year ago and literally in the next scene Rick throws a huge wad of notes into a buskers collection basket. It felt like they ran out of money and couldn’t film the ending or at least didn’t have time to film it but it felt like about 20 minutes was reduced into 90 seconds which felt a bit odd.
Whilst Power Ballad isn't as bad as I feared. It isn't the sort of film that I would have seen which is perhaps the point of a Mystery screening. I think that it's a film with its heart in the right place but something was lacking which means that I doubt that its a film that will get a repeat viewing.
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