Sundance Review: SONG ONE Starring Anne Hathaway & Johnny Flynn

song-one-sundance

A romantic drama with a soundtrack that will melt your heart, SONG ONE is Kate Barker-Froyland first film that you won’t want to miss. Franny (Anne Hathaway), an anthropologist living in Morocco, receives a phone call from her mother (Mary Steenburgen) that changes her life. Her younger brother, Henry, who had been living in Brooklyn trying to make it as a musician, was hit by a cab on his walk home. Now in a coma, doctors aren’t sure he’ll ever wake up.

Franny, we come to find, is harboring a lot of guilt from the last time she spoke to her brother. Six months prior, a fight had broken out between them, over his decision to drop out of college and pursue his musical passion full time. On returning home, a discovery is made which throws the film into motion: her brother Henry’s journal tucked into his guitar case. As she starts to read the pages, Franny finds herself opening up pieces of his life she hadn’t known about previously.Along with his journal, Franny uncovers tickets to see her brother’s favorite musician, James Forester (Johnny Flynn). She makes the decision to go to the show, since he cannot.

In meeting with James after his show, Franny passes along a CD of her brother singing for James to listen to. She leaves with a heavy heart, but hopes he’ll take a listen anyways. When he stops by the hospital where her brother is being held not long after their meeting, to see how he is doing and to see about playing a song for him, you can see the walls that Franny has put up start to fall away. Where you might feel hesitant to this scene, as the cliche of it begins to nag at the back of your mind, it flows so effortlessly that you are able to forget this hesitance within moments. Anne’s sensitive nature and ability to express her character’s pure sorrow effortlessly coats each scene with an authentic ambiance.

At one time, Franny had fought with her brother over his decision to make music his full time career; now, she’s clawing to get a taste of the musical experience any way that she can.  She attends concerts with James, and even some alone. She sings silly songs to James, trying to inspire him during his writing lull. She’s obsessively listening to her brother’s recorded songs and searching out instruments he always wanted. She has gone from one extreme to another, as she explores this new world that her brother loves so dearly, and has begun to blossom into a softer side of herself as a result.

The relationship between James and Franny grows deeper, emotionally and sexually, as the two of them begin to spend more time together. From going to different concerts, recording sounds for her to play for Henry, opening his fan mail, to sitting and enjoying the city skyline, the two of them forge a bond.

Desperately trying to hold herself together, and to rebuild what she fears may have been lost, she visits her brother every day, playing the sounds she has recorded for him, hoping that the familiarity will help him recover. It is during these desperate times of extreme hope that she shares with her brother that the weakness of Franny’s relationship with her mother is unearthed. When she left to pursue her dreams around the world she left everything behind and didn’t look back. Where this may have been therapeutic for her, you can see the pain it has caused her mother.

Johnny Flynn plays the elusive singer/songwriter, James Forester. Mostly an unknown actor, especially when pitted against the likes of Anne Hathaway and Mary Steenburgen, Flynn will leave you lovestruck, with him and his messy hair. While many may watch and wonder why he consistently stays in that shy, awkward place, I found it massively endearing and realistic for his character. There have always been those in the spotlight that aren’t the most extroverted, gregarious people. It’s refreshing to see someone not attempt to portray a successful musician character fully “Hollywood-ized”, the stereotypical confident and full-of-smooth responses leading man, especially when that’s not always the case. Flynn’s nervous nature, which to me appeared whole-heartedly real, even added a few laughs in places where Franny and her mother were in arguments or overtly dramatic moments.

Musically, Flynn nails it. When he takes the stage, singing and playing, it seemed the audience, including myself, was completely memorized. I found myself praying that we’d get to hear the entire song each time he took the stage, and not be left craving more like you are in films that only want to give you a taste of the music. Luckily we get to hear him sing and play a few times, which makes me think that the director and his team were aware that the music should take the front seat in this film from the very start. I’m not ashamed to say when I got out of the screening I went right to download his music. (Also, I must say it doesn’t hurt that he’s British. That accent? Killer.)

Though the story line is addicting, like so many romantic dramas that have come before it, it’s the soundtrack and score of SONG ONE that will win your heart here. From the musical masterminds, Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice, comes a score that makes you feel that music is whats meant to be at this films’ core. Without it, this film would fall flat and seem as commonplace as other romantic dramas.

One thing I wished we could have seen more of in this film was the character Henry (Ben Rosenfield). His first and only true scene at the start of the film, where he’s singing in the subway station, had the entire theater locked on him. Sitting amongst all those people, I could feel a collective breath when he finished singing, as if we were so enthralled with him we hadn’t thought it possible that he could stop.  A talent worth noting, Rosenfeld’s part, in my eyes, could have certainly been expanded in a way that would have only benefited the film.
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Author: Heather Duval

Heather Duval is a co-owner of Fanspired and entered the world of pop culture at an early age by studying film in high school, attending IMTA in NYC and working with New England Models Group. With a Bachelor’s degree from Keene State College, Heather studied Marketing and Business Economics, filling every possible elective with film studies, social media and web design.