The Greatest Hits (2024)
Directed by: Ned Benson
Premise: A woman (Lucy Boynton) who lost her boyfriend in a car accident is able to travel into the past when she is triggered by familiar songs. In her trips she tries to prevent the accident but in the present she meets a new guy (Justin H. Min).
What Works: The Greatest Hits is a story of trauma and loss and recovery. Harriet is mourning the death of her boyfriend who was killed two years earlier in an automobile collision. She has since acquired the uncanny ability to travel into the past by listening to songs associated with a specific time and place. The premise has an effective way of visualizing how we associate music to specific moments and phases in our lives as well as the way in which hearing a particular song can put us back in a certain emotional headspace. But in The Greatest Hits this idea is taken a step further. Harriet isn’t always in control of her time traveling trips; a song on the radio can fling her back in time while in the present her body collapses and she goes unconscious. It’s an appropriate metaphor of the way people are emotionally triggered by otherwise innocuous stimuli. The filmmakers stage the transitions in clever ways, sliding between temporal periods in ways that are sudden but it’s always clear where we are on the timeline. Harriet meets David, a man in her present who might be a potential new love interest, and this complicates the conflict. The Greatest Hits dramatizes the way moving on from tragedy can feel like betrayal even when it isn’t. Actors Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min have a likable romantic chemistry and their relationship causes an interesting tension for Harriet and for the viewer; as much as we’d like her to fix her past with her former boyfriend we’d also like to see her make a future with David. That’s the same tension found in a love triangle but in The Greatest Hits the conflict takes on a different and more complex meaning.
What Doesn’t: The premise of The Greatest Hits is comparable to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. However, that comparison is not in The Greatest Hits’ favor when it comes to the ending. The overall implication of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is accepting the things we cannot change and learning to live with loss and reconciling the way pain is part of the truth of our lives. That’s a more honest insight than the one offered by The Greatest Hits. This film isn’t so daft as to suggest we can fix everything but the resolution ultimately runs away from loss. The end of this movie feels like a bit of cheat. The filmmakers also tend to idealize the deceased boyfriend. By going into the past and not just into her subjective memories, Harriet would be able to see the guy for who he was but the film always keeps him as a perfect boyfriend which seems emotionally immature.
Disc extras: Available on Hulu.
Bottom Line: The Greatest Hits has a lot in it that is smart and affecting. The central idea is compelling and the characters are likable as they work through a fantastic conceit that is packed with meaning. The movie stumbles a bit in the ending but it is otherwise a smart and well produced mix of fantasy and drama.
Episode: #1015 (September 29, 2024)