THE GREATEST HITS (12)
Music has the power to slingshot us back to a specific moment in time.
A comforting childhood lullaby that shepherded us to sleep; a tearful ballad that perfectly summed up a failed relationship; a fitting farewell played at a loved one’s funeral.
Writer-director Ned Benson’s fantastical drama comedy is lost in the music of Los Angeles record producer Harriet (Lucy Boynton), who suffered a traumatic head injury two years ago in the car accident that killed her boyfriend (David Corenswet). She is abruptly propelled back every time she hears a song that played during their four-year courtship.
Earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones allow Harriet to function as she searches for the elusive music cue that might allow her to change the past.
Teary-eyed reminiscence becomes an inconvenience when she meets Jackson (Justin H Min) at a counselling session and has a pang of attraction.
The Greatest Hits remixes genre tropes with flawed time-travelling logic (how can Harriet’s headphones block sung lyrics but allow her to hear softly spoken conversations?).
Boynton and Min are an appealing match while Corenswet’s dreamboat is a plot device to delay Harriet’s inevitable choice to live in the present or past.
She’s haunted by music and it’s time for an exorcism.