Movie Review: "The Greatest Hits"; A Predictable Flick To Vibe With
8/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars
Music and memory are inexorably tied to one another. A song can return you to specific moments and trigger deep-seated thoughts and feelings. This is the idea at the centre of Ned Benson's new film The Greatest Hits, that transportational idea of music taken to its extreme: our main character isn't just taken back to her feelings when she hears a song, she's taken back to the time and place she heard it.
When we meet Harriet (Lucy Boynton), she is a shell of a person. Two years prior, she and her boyfriend Max (David Corenswet) were in a car accident. He died, and she survived but has not been able to move on with her life; it's hard to remember when you're not able to forget, after all.
Image courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
Harriet now spends her days working in a library with earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones, effectively isolating herself from music as much as possible. Her record collection is sorted into boxes: some are safe to listen to, others are not, and the remainder are untested. In these down moments at home, she is searching for the song that will take her to the moment that will let her save Max from his fate, but then, one day, she meets David (Justin H Min). He's also stuck in his grief; his parents have passed and left him to run their antique store, which he can't let go of.
This description feels like a lot, and that's because it is. This is a high-concept film that takes a lot to explain, but one smart choice Benson makes is only to explain the important things. Yes, Harriet is a walking metaphor for how we get trapped in grief, but the film never explains why or how she's time-travelling. She just is, and you have to go with it. The accident Max dies in isn't with a toxic waste disposal truck, and there's no phone booth she wandered into after the funeral. This is clever because it doesn't matter.
It's also easy to vibe with, thanks to Boyton, who proves again that she is good at playing happy-sad. She has been up and coming for a while now, and it's nice to see her in a lead role that uses her presence and talent well. Min is also good at playing bummed out, though his breathy, ethereal delivery might wear a little thin for some.
Image courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
The plot is also a touch predictable but that doesn't matter because The Greatest Hits is a vibes movie, and you have to vibe with it. If you can approach it with this mindset, you will likely have a good time. Sure, there's definitely a scene where Boynton and Min connect via singing along to a song with shared nostalgia (both with each other than the audience), and that is a little shmaltzy, but Boyton and Min are so endearing that it works.
There's little to say about Corenswet or the other supporting performers, Retta and Austin Crute. None of them have enough screen time to be developed into anything other than basic archetypes, and at least in Crute's case, you will want more. In a film that only runs 90-odd minutes, it feels like perhaps either Retta's grief counsellor character or Crute's gay, DJ, life-advice-dispensing best friend should have been omitted so that the other could be better developed.
On the other hand, the short runtime is a boon. Yes, the supporting characters are underbaked, but the movie is also in no danger of overstaying its welcome. It knows where it's going, and it gets there at speed. It is a touch predictable, but the novel approach to time travel and the performances from Boyton and Min make it worthwhile if you're willing to vibe with it.
Acting and Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 1 | Story and Message - 1 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 2 | Reviewer's Preference - 1 | What does this mean?