The Greatest Hits
Writer/director Ned Benson tracks through time in this melodic gem of love’s labour’s lost and found.
For the record: Lucy Boynton
Photo Credit: Merie Weismiller Wallace, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
Songs have a way of transporting us back to memorable moments in our lives. What if music really could bring us back to the past? Would we (or could we) change the events to come? And what if we couldn’t just turn that time travelling ability off? These are the questions Harriet (Lucy Boynton) faces when she discovers that listening to the songs she shared with her former boyfriend Max (DC’s future Superman David Corenswet) literally cause her to blast into the past, specifically to the moment when they first heard the song. No wonder she seeks the hushed environs of the library and wears noise-cancelling headphones everywhere she goes. It’s a premise that touches on sound sensitivity, anxiety, seizures and trauma. Covering vastly different territory than the traditional time loop or time travel movie, writer/director Ned Benson utilises magic realism to dive into notions of love, loss, and the power of emotion.
In compiling the perfect track list to drive the story, Benson had extensive conversations with veteran music supervisor Mary Ramos and music consultant DJ Harvey. The final soundtrack represents a dynamic mix of artists (The The, Peggy Lee, Wildest Dreams, Jamie xx, Niki & the Dove, Roxy Music, Lana Del Rey, Son Lux, etc.), including songs significant to Benson’s own life. The film also marks Benson’s second collaboration with composer Ryan Lott, who recently scored the Academy Award-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once. Lott finds the sorrow in the silence, bridging the overall soundscape together into a synthesis of score, music, and sound design.
As with Benson’s The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby trilogy, the film thoughtfully confronts relationships and grief; the things we hang on to, and how one relationship can become a necessary experience for the next. Many of us can relate to first love and a relationship that was hard to let go of. Memories turn bittersweet and a lack of closure can lead to crazed behaviour. In Harriet’s case, it's creating a relationship timeline that looks like the evidence board of an ongoing investigation. There’s also a subjective nature to our memories, where we often double up on their significance and meaning in the absence of what once was. If love is the accumulation of a shared experience, grief is certainly the loss of it. As Harriet is faced with staying in the past or coming to terms with the end of her relationship timeline, Benson points to our ability as human beings to open up to love again. It’s a remarkable thing.
CHAD KENNERK
Cast: Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min, David Corenswet, Austin Crute.
Dir Ned Benson, Pro Ned Benson, Stephanie Davis, Shannon Gaulding, Cassandra Kulukundis, Michael London, Screenplay Ned Benson, Ph Chung-Hoon Chung, Pro Des Page Buckner, Ed Saira Haider, Music Ryan Lott, Costumes Olga Mill.
Searchlight Pictures/Groundswell Productions/Far Hills Pictures-Hulu/Disney+.
94 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 12 April 2024. PG-13.
