“Irish writer-director John Carney delivers an aspartame rush of enjoyment with this terrific comedy of bromance and betrayal in the world of music,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.
“Power Ballad” is “about making it and dreaming big”, but it’s also about something that is often unacknowledged in films about showbiz: the binary nature of success and failure. For every star, there is an army of people who tried and failed to make it.
Paul Rudd plays Rick Power, a likeable American who was once in a promising band but, on tour, he fell in love with an Irish woman, stayed with her in Dublin and now fronts a wedding band. Secretly depressed that he sabotaged his own career, he is initially resentful when, while performing at a fancy venue, he meets Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), a “preening” ex-boyband star trying to go solo and searching for a hit song. But Rick is flattered by the star’s attention, and “rashly” plays him a song he has been working on. Later, Rick is in his car when a familiar tune comes on the radio. Soon he is hearing it everywhere.
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At this point, most films would “morph into a frantic comedy of revenge”, said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times. “Power Ballad” is no exception but Carney (known for “Once” and “Sing Street”) adds that rare thing: nuance. “Danny isn’t a cartoon villain”; just a weak man in a cut-throat business. And Rick only goes ape when other options are exhausted.
Also, it is refreshing that the women – Rick’s wife (Marcella Plunkett) and daughter (Beth Fallon) – are sardonic and self-possessed, while “the men do the emoting”.
Still, “Power Ballad” mixes in quite a lot of familiar Carney themes, said Kevin Maher in The Times. It’s “solid, sweet, smartly crafted entertainment”.
