Power Ballad Movie Review

Paul Rudd can sing. Very well, might I add. ​

“Power Ballad,” named that for the song you’ll continually hear during the film, and start to love, by the way, is the story of Rick (Paul Rudd), once an aspiring rockstar, now a wedding singer, who, during a gig, gets the opportunity of a lifetime. The career he has always dreamed of is in the palm of his hands, and it’s ripped away with the added pain of humiliation along with it. It’s an inspirational, emotional, and touching film. I won’t promise you won’t cry.

Rick is the frontman of a wedding band. In this story, “The Bride and Groove” play at a wedding where Danny (Nick Jonas), a popular singer from the boy band days, is given a chance to prove he still has it. Rick lets him jump on stage and belt out a few tunes, and even joins him. Overall, this is a very good popcorn movie with delightful, charismatic performances. It starts out a bit quirkier than it ends up. You are about to go through a heavy ride with Rick as the two men have a good time after the wedding, getting to know one another and talking shop. Rick is so comfortable with Danny, he sings a song for him that he’s struggling to finish, Danny gives him a few ideas, nothing much, but they leave it there with Danny even giving him a gift… or as it turns out, Rick giving Danny one because imagine Ricks surprise when six months later, he hears his song coming out of the speakers in a store.

He keeps hearing it in fact because it reaches the top of the Billboard charts and is on everyone’s lips as one they can’t get enough of. No one believes him when he tells them the song is actually his. Not even his wife, Rachel (Marcella Plunkett), or daughter, Aja (Beth Fallon), believes him. Millions of people are listening and viewing it online, and he’s hurt. He wants credit for finally having written something that would have gone somewhere. He does have talent after all, but does he have digital proof of that?

Through most of the rest of the film, he’s trying to find out if he does… or can he reach Danny and get through to him to be an honest guy? Music means a lot to us, those who make it and those who listen. Who it belongs to means a great deal to the person behind its creation. That’s the ultimate storyline here. Rick doesn’t want money or fame from Danny; he wants acknowledgment, giving the beautiful song that he wrote for his daughter, the recognition and life it deserves. I saw this twice, and both times I immediately wanted to watch it again. This is such an impressive and inspiring story. Please include it in your weekend. Everyone involved, like Rick in the film, deserves your attention.