Wild Rose is a 2018 musical drama film directed by Tom Harper and starring Jessie Buckley.
Rose-Lynn (Buckley) is a Glaswegian woman whose dream is to make it as a country musician in Nashville, but her criminal history and two children, currently being cared for by her long-suffering mother Marion (Julie Walters), make this difficult. The wealthy Susannah (Sophie Okonedo) hires Rose-Lynn as a housekeeper and takes an interest in her fiery new employee, eventually offering her support to go to Nashville — but Rose-Lynn struggles to pursue her dream and care for her children at the same time.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, and was released in the UK in April 2019. The soundtrack features covers of several country songs, as well as an original song written by Mary Steenburgen.
Not to be confused with the manga or the 1932 silent film.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: No one ever mentions the father(s) of Rose-Lynn's kids. Since it turns out she'd had them as a teenager, it's likely she's always been a single mother.
- The Cameo: BBC presenter Bob Harris, as well as country musicians Ashley Mc Bride and Kacey Musgraves, appear as themselves.
- Family Versus Career: Rose-Lynn has difficulty balancing her dream and caring for her family, and Marion at one point chews her out for focusing on her performance after her son breaks his arm.
- Fiery Redhead: Rose-Lynn has bright red hair, and is temperamental and immature.
- Hollywood Law: Rose-Lynn would not have been able to enter the USA, let alone obtain a work permit (without which she has no chance of getting legal employment) due to her record of conviction and imprisonment for drug offences, at least not so quickly after getting out of prison.
- Home Sweet Home: Ultimately, Rose-Lynn manages to travel to Nashville and has the opportunity to meet with a record producer, but returns home to Glasgow and performs her first original song (appropriately titled "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)") there.
- Magical Negro: The black Susanna at first seems like Rose-Lynn's ticket to stardom. Played with, in that she is more well-off than the white Rose-Lynn, employs Rose-Lynn and gives her the run of her house without any sort of background check; also, her meeting with BBC DJ Bob Harris doesn’t actually produce any useful outcome.
- Music Stories: Young mother dreams of making it big as a country music star.
- Raised by Grandparents: Rose-Lynn's mother Marion took care of Rose-Lynn's children while the latter was in prison, and continues to look out for them when Rose-Lynn fails.
- Teen Pregnancy: Rose-Lynn mentions she had both her kids prior to age eighteen.
- Took a Level in Kindness: That Rose-Lynn has the talent and charisma to make it as a Nashville star is abundantly clear, but what holds her back is her own impatience and volatility. In the end she wises up as a mother and manages to go to Nashville but realizes that her future is in Glasgow with her family.
