Fresh from her career-defining turn in Michael Pearce’s Beast in 2017, Jessie Buckley is back with yet another outstanding performance which is set to confirm once and for all that she is one of the most promising talents right now as she stars in Tom Harper’s excellent new film Wild Rose. Written by Nicole Taylor (Secret Diary of a Call Girl, The C Word) and set in Glasgow, Wild Rose offers a simply told, and beautifully crafted story about a young Scottish Country music singer who dreams of one day making big in Nashville.
After her release from a Glasgow jail on drug charges, single mother-of-two Rose-Lynn Harlan (Buckely) can’t wait to pick up where she left off. Feeling reinvigorated by her new-found freedom, the feisty young singer can’t wait to jump back on stage with her band at the Country music themed pub where she had been a regular fixture prior to her arrest. However, when she shows up to claim her job back, Rose is unceremoniously fired and told to never set foot on the premises again.
To her mother’s despair, Rose seems hellbent on repeating the same old mistakes by acting recklessly and refusing to take her parental responsibilities seriously. Struggling to make ends meet, the young woman agrees to start a new job cleaning for a middle class family in one of Glasgow’s more leafy areas. Soon Rose finds a strange affinity with her new boss Susannah (Sophie Okonedo) who appears to take an interest in the young woman and her singing career despite knowing very little about her past.
Buckley, who first came to prominence when she took part in Saturday night TV show aimed at picking the newest musical theatre stars in the country, puts in an incredible turn as Rose. Giving it all she can in a decidedly convincing Glasgow accent, the young actor is truly impressive in a role which she was surely born to play. Offering Rose as a volatile and eternally shambolic train-wreck, Buckley is somehow still able to successfully make us fall in love with her character despite all her flaws.
Elsewhere, Julie Waters is as brilliant as ever as Rose’s long-suffering mother Marion, while Sophie Okonedo manages a beautifully nuanced performance as Rose’s boss and good Samaritan Susannah.
Nicole Taylor presents a wonderfully understated and robust screenplay which isn’t afraid of resorting to melodrama all the while sticking to a fantastically well executed social realist aesthetic. And despite a couple of continuity errors which should have perhaps been picked up in editing, director Tom Harper is till able to offer a truly unique film which is undoubtedly a shoe-in for a few nods come award season. A beautiful story told with a huge amount of tenderness and love for its unconventional heroine.
