When The Barenaked Ladies performed their song “If I Had $1,000,000,” they mentioned that they would use the money to buy a house, a K-Car, a fur coat, exotic pets, and expensive ketchup. But what about a whole island? Well, that’s exactly what Charles (Tim Key) does in The Ballad of Wallis Island. Of course, you’d need a little more than a million dollars to do that. 

That’s no problem for Charles, as he won the national lottery not once, but twice. Yes, this slightly oafish man is one of the luckiest people in history. The proceeds from the first win were spent traveling the world with his wife Marie. The money eventually ran out, but not before they filled their fridge door with magnets and postcards from every place on Earth. Charles decided to be a little more fiscally responsible with the second lump sum, buying a small, secluded island in the middle of nowhere and hunkering himself there.

Charles is a massive fan of the folk duo Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) & Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan). Unfortunately, the pair broke up nearly a decade ago, with McGwyer embarking on a solo career and Mortimer staying out of the music industry together. But there isn’t a problem time (and a lot of money) can’t fix. Charles separately books them to perform on his island under the guise of an intimate private event for just a few fans. Like Lindsay Lohan’s parents in The Parent Trap, this comedy of errors leads Herb and Nell to reconcile the past and the present.

However, this isn’t a Disney movie where everything works itself out in the end. The romantic ballads of Herb and Nell’s past came out of a real infatuation between the two. Basden and Mulligan are great together, the former putting up a tough exterior to hide the pain he feels for being a has-been, and the latter laying it all out on the table. There’s a constant will-they-won't-they dynamic at play, although the presence of Nell’s husband Michael kind of puts a damper on that.

This feature is based on the 2007 short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, which Basden and Key both starred and wrote. The duo wrote the feature as well, bringing the original short director James Griffiths along for the ride. There’s a calming reassurance that permeates through the whole thing that could only be bought from nearly fifteen years of care and affection by the creatives. Cinematographer G. Magni Ágústsson provides a warm texture to this charming run-down slice of paradise.

Time has also been a double-edged sword for the creatives, with some poor ideas possibly not being killed simply because they had stuck around so long. Charles is lovable, yet has a habitual need to fill any moment of silence with words. It’s a humorous tick at first but the fact that it’s trotted out nearly a dozen more times makes it immediately annoying. I wish more time had been spent on the dynamic between Nell and Herb, as their brief isolated moments are easily the most interesting parts of this story.

Basden wrote nearly two dozen songs for the feature, a mixture of folk and rock. They aren’t exactly memorable, but there’s a soothing quality to them that invites you to agree with why someone like Charles would just want to live a quiet life with them as his soundtrack. The Ballad of Wallis Island is kind of like those songs, beckoning you to relax by the fire and gently search your soul.