The Greatest Hits (2024) | REVIEW

Directed by Ned Benson — Screenplay by Ned Benson.

Ned Benson’s The Greatest Hits is a romantic fantasy film that follows Harriet Gibbons (played by Lucy Boynton), a woman mourning her boyfriend Max (played by David Corenswet) who recently died in a car crash. To recover emotionally, she takes part in grief support group meetings, but she doesn’t know how to move on because whenever she hears a song that she listened to while she and Max dated, she is emotionally transported through time to the moment she heard it, while, for everyone else, it just looks like she is passing out or having a seizure. Harriet has become obsessed with the idea that she can use this condition and/or ability to travel in time and prevent Max’s death. However, she is also starting to become emotionally involved with another member of the support group named David (played by Justin H. Min).

Based on the basic premise, I presumed that this would feel like a Richard Curtis film. Here I am thinking specifically of something like his About Time (the sci-fi romance film about time travel that he wrote and directed) or Yesterday (the The Beatles-inspired rom-com fantasy that he wrote for Danny Boyle to direct). But whereas those films have this initial sugarcoated representation of its romantic angle, The Greatest Hits begins as the grief-focused ‘downer’ that About Time only eventually becomes. I think that this film sort of finds itself in the middle of two stylistic approaches, with About Time being at one end of the spectrum and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at the other end (both of which are films that I love and films that Benson’s flick will remind you of). It isn’t as romantically swollen as Curtis’ film, but it isn’t as stylistically ambitious and experimental as Gondry’s either. Rather The Greatest Hits takes an indie approach to narrative themes and ideas covered with more oomph elsewhere. 

This film skips past the event that kickstarted its protagonist’s time-hopping ability/mental condition, as it begins in medias res at a point in time when Lucy Boynton’s Harriet knows of her condition/ability and has experimented with it for a very long time. I think this structure is a bit of a shame because since we don’t really get more than glimpses of the deceased partner that she is desperate to bring back to life rather than allowing herself to move on, that means that we don’t really get emotionally caught up in the romance of Boynton’s character and Corenswet’s character, which diminishes our involvement in her supposed ability and our understanding of the person she misses. The film could’ve benefitted from adding scenes of Boynton and Corenswet’s characters together seen from the perspective of people in love rather than solely from the perspective of someone grieving. It also doesn’t help that, almost from the very moment we first learn of her belief that she can change time and save Max, it becomes immediately apparent what she could do to save him and thus the film becomes a little bit predictable. I also think it is fair to say that Justin H. Min’s David should have had more room, i.e. additional scenes, for the character’s grief to take center stage, but, as it is, it doesn’t receive the focus it deserves.

But despite its structure and its obvious and convenient ending, I will say that I did enjoy this a fair bit. Although I do think the narrative underserved David Corenswet, I thought Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min brought a charming and realistic on-screen presence that made me invested in their will-they/won’t-they relationship. In addition, Justin H. Min has a terrific, romantic line at the end of one of their dates that really wins you over, and there are some very nice needle drops. It’s not enough to make this a full recommendation, but it was enough for me to have a good time with the film all things considered, as it is by no means a bad film — it just doesn’t fully live up to its potential. 

5.9 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.