Carney makes movies about loving and making music. With Power Ballad he focuses on the nebulous relationship surrounding the "ownership" of music, in the specific context of what constitutes writing a song? Power Ballad muses on this question in interesting ways, surprisingly not offering us too easy an answer making this a far more intriguing story that I had anticipated. Presented as a simple moral question, the film actually goes in different directions, as we explore how ones relationship to art can affect ones relationship to the people they love.
I liked how Power Ballad doesn't go where you think it's going to go. The film is the least interesting when it is following funny hijinx of Rick trying to reach Danny. It is at its most interesting when each is struggling with their relationship to the song in question, the catchy and very digestible titular ballad.
For me the film doesn't quite have enough juice and feels like it needs to pad its story a bit. The lead up to Rick and Danny's final confrontation errs on the silly side a bit too much for my tastes, but when they do finally talk, really talk, again the film finds its groove. And the final moments worked for me, a rather satisfying conclusion of the thorny issue that finds a realistic way to resolve the plot, even if it doesn't quite answer the central question, a question I feel is more complicated than a simple yes or no. Sure the film gives us what the legal answer may be but its focus on relationships gives the film its emotional centre.
Power Ballad
Starring: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Beth Fallon, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor
Writer/Director: John Carney
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