There have been a few cases where music artists come out with a song that another claims was plagiarized from one of their songs. When hip-hop exploded on the scene, sampling took this to an all-new level with Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and its fight with the use of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure and more recently with Joe Satriani showing that one of his works was used in Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”. But what happens when it’s an entire song and not just a section of it? That is where Power Ballad comes in.
John Carney (Once, Sing Street) directs and co-writes here with a cast that includes Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Jack Reynor, Marcella Plunkett, Beth Fallon, and Havana Rose Liu. Rick Powers (Rudd) is a former touring musician who has made a home in Ireland playing for a wedding band and at one of their gigs, he meets Danny Wilson (Jonas), a former boy band member who is the only one whose solo career has not really taken off. After the reception, Danny and Rick have all night jam and writing session and really seem to get along well. Danny heads back to the USA and produces a new song from the music he heard from the session with Rick that takes off like a rocket, and when Rick realizes it’s a song he wrote before meeting Danny, he goes on a quest to get the credit and recognition he believes he deserves, no matter what.
This film mainly takes place in America and Ireland that fits within the story being told with a bit of CGI used in order to tell backstories right, and is also done well. Since the music industry is at the heart of Power Ballad, the expectation is that the soundtrack is solid, and this film delivers on that front too, with a good mix of wedding standards and new music from Jonas alongside it. Honestly, this is so well done that I am interested in buying the soundtrack, led by the very catch “How to write a Song (Without You)”.
At just under an hour and forty-five minutes long, the pacing is solid and does not veer much, even though it was a bit predictable. The script itself balances all of the emotions necessary well and keeps the comedy in the right places so as not to go too far in one direction with Jonas (who has been known more for being a musician) really shining in his performance and chemistry with Rudd, whose musical talents were as good to me a Val Kilmer’s in The Doors. Overall, I enjoyed Power Ballad and will recommend it as weekend matinee screening in the theaters.