Title: The Greatest Hits (2024)
Director: Ned Benson
Writer: Ned Benson
Studio: Searchlight Pictures
IMDb Plot: A love story centering on the connection between music and memory and how they transport us, sometimes literally.
Joe Says: Millenials take note! Finding true love and saving the time stream can only be accomplished through Gen X era music.
Ned Benson’s romance-driven fantasy takes that situational question – the one about how listening to a song can transport you back to a time when you first heard it – and gives it spin. Mostly, up to 33 1/3 RPMs. For in The Greatest Hits when Harriet hears a specific tune, she Marty McFlies back to the past and to the exact physical moment when she heard that song. And she does this again and again for the most altruistic of reasons – to save the life of her boyfriend, Max.
Two years back, Harriet (Lucy Boynton) barely survived a car crash that claimed her boyfriend (David Corenswet, the recently crowned new Man of Steel). Instead of a concussion or an annoying nagging ache that can predict the weather, Harriet awoke from her coma with the ability to time travel. The kryptonite in this plot-device is that she can only quantum leap backwards in her own time stream and only after hearing a memory-inducing song.
Harriet listens to different albums on a nightly basis trying to find the right song that will transport her to the perfect place in time, striving to put right what once went wrong. She desperately tries to convince Max to change plans. To turn right instead of left; get coffee instead of walking the dog; denying him the purchase of a $300 Queen Anne chair. But try as she might, Harriet cannot turn back time. And when she meets David (Justin H. Min), she begins to question the relevance of her mission.
Benson (co-writer of Marvel Studios’ Black Widow) amps up the Millennial angst and strife and chases it all down with Spotify playlists, single-source coffee, and Prius Uber drivers. Harriet wants to live – and to live with Max. On the other hand, David, suffering the sudden loss of his parents, would rather the past not change, come hell or IRS agents. The two of them are cute and attractive and – because this a Hollywood movie, dammit – seem right for each other. And what better way to work through that angst then by blasting out tunes.
However, for a movie that is ridiculously attentive to music and playlists and DJs and record stores, the needle drops in The Greatest Hits most certainly do not pump up the jams. There are no rockers or bangers. No mic drops or get-down, get-downs. No put-your-arms-in-the-air-like-you-just-don’t-care. Instead, The Greatest Hits is full of homogenous, mopey, solemn grooves that one might decide to wake up to on a Tuesday. Benson endeavors to make music integral to the story, yet none of these mediocre tracks scream as an essential “this-is-our-song” at a “this-is-our-moment” time. Other than a sole Roxy Music track, nothing mixed within stands out as a hit or is even memorable – including that dreadful acoustic cover of the Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love.”
The 2022 indie movie Press Play faced a similar conundrum with a parallel story: lost love, time travel, play lists, painfully forgettable soundtrack. The Greatest Hits however, foregoes the whining from that one, instead dives deep into characterization. Harriet has a life, albeit a shattered one, as does David. Benson cleverly crafts David’s arc to rise as Harriet’s dips.
Ironically, the impetus of the story, Max, remains vague. Within the various flashbacks, Max pronounces his love. He bobs his head during some LoFi concert where the volume of play is so fictitiously low that actual conversation can occur. He enjoys kissing in the ocean. His absent characterization makes him conspicuously less super than the smiley David and his cool classic car.
Forgettable music aside, Benson spins up enjoyably convenient characters with Harriet and David. Granted, one of the more difficult decisions Harriet must make is selecting which song to Karaoke to, but hey, the struggle is real, man.
Fortunately, Harriet grasps the best way to save Max – and maybe the whole time stream! – while she’s listening to Bryan Ferry. Proving, once again, Gen X music saves the day.
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