Wild Rose

WILD ROSE (15)

D: Tom Harper

Entertainment One/Fable/Film4/BFI/Creative Scotland (Faye Ward)

UK 2018 (released 2019)

101 mins

Drama/Musical

W: Nicole Taylor

DP: George Still

Ed: Mark Eckersley

Mus: Jack Arnold

Jessie Buckley (Rose Lynn Harlan), Julie Walters (Marion), Sophie Okenedo (Susannah), Jamie Sives (Sam), Craig Parkinson (Alan)

What a fantastic couple of years 2018 and 2019 have been for Jessie Buckley, making a name for herself on the hit television mini-series Chernobyl before following up Beast, her cinematic breakthrough with this musical drama from the heart of Scotland.

Buckley plays the title character, a working class single mother going straight after a stint in prison for smuggling drugs. She has aspirations to be a country/folk singer, but can't catch a break due to her murky past and takes up employment as a cleaner for a wealthy local woman, who encourages her to chase her dreams.

Though Buckley is absolutely amazing in this film, it's not one which can be described a "feelgood picture". In fact, it's actually quite bleak, like Scottish weather, and its not too harsh an assessment to say that the main character is quite unlikeable, seemingly wanting to have her cake and eat it, though there is some redemption in the film's final moments which gloss this over.

A decent indie flick which is well worth a catch, mostly due to Buckley's encapsulating performance. It needed more music though.

6/10