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Director John Carney is known for telling stories of people who connect through music. His most notable films; Once, Begin Again, Sing Street and Flora & Son all heavily feature characters who form bands or singing duos and in doing so manage to mend personal wounds of some kind or another. While audiences remember the songs though, the connection part is just as prominent and Carney excels in how he presents both. 

What is shown by his TV show Modern Love (that did not use the usual musical motifs) and this new film (that once again does) is that he should probably move away from the songs and the bands and concentrate purely on relationship dramas. 

The performance element here centres around Paul Rudd’s American Rick Power who let a promising rock career peter out when he met and fell in love with an Irish girl (oh yes, the Emerald Isle is another thing that regularly features in Carney’s work). Now fronting a wedding band he still dreams of that one song that will find great success but when this happens it is because an ex-boyband member looking for his big solo break has stolen it and he is getting no credit and no money.

As a plot this works, and it is a little different because this time the music is creating conflicts rather than being a healing force, but it still feels like we have seen this sort of thing from Carney too many times and it is getting a bit tired. Carney always writes the tunes for his movies and he has given us some wonderful anthems and ballads over the years but for the first time one of his melodies comes dangerously close to being annoying. The song in question is nice but it is played so often in the film your love for it is tested. As a whole Power Ballad is not as good as Carney’s previous movies either. Again, it is engaging and it is certainly not predictable (not entirely) but it just doesn’t feel fresh or surprising. 

What does work though is the love story. Like a lot of Carney’s work this love is not purely romantic. As we have seen from the director before there are platonic and parental bonds explored here and the depiction is delightful and wonderfully moving. 

The characterisations of the two men at the heart of the narrative is strong too. Rick does not always behave in the ways you’d expect and Nick Jonas as the Harry Stylesalike Danny Wilson is not as two dimensional as he could have been. The end is skilfully handled as well. Danny is not demonised but neither is he ultimately exonerated of what is actually a considerable crime and the way this is handled in the denouement is perfectly measured. The plot might be a bit unlikely in places. Mind you, compared to the way the inexperienced school kids are suddenly able to play a range of musical instruments in Sing Street it’s not that bad. 

Incidentally if the Danny Wilson makes you think of the 80s band of the same name then this is no coincidence. Lead singer Gary Clark is Carney’s longtime musical collaborator and co-wrote the songs for this. 

With Rudd and Jonas this is starrier than most of Carney’s movies (Begin Again being the exception). There is still a great supporting cast of unknown Irish actors and Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett and teen Beth Fallon all stand out. Carney regular Jack Raynor also appears and is essentially being the bad guy so that Jonas doesn’t have to. Even he is layered though and this is in Carney’s writing and directing as much as it is in the performance.

So, I don’t know why Carney keeps falling back on similar set ups. I guess he just loves the world of musicians and it is possible that the film industry has pigeonholed him. I’m ready for something totally different from him though. Any way you play it, this movie shows he is ready.