The Greatest Hits is on paper, if not a great idea, at least a decent one. But the movie utterly fails in execution and compounds all the failures by delivering the worst ending a movie that has already failed in this respect can: a predictable one. Worst of all, there’s nothing outside of David Corenswet’s paper-thin charisma to make the movie memorable in any way.
Lucy Boynton tries and succeeds at nothing other than showcasing how hard it is to try to move on from grief. Except The Greatest Hits isn’t a movie about grief. If it were, I’d probably be here commending it, because it does a pretty great job at the feeling of emptiness, the utter despair of realizing that you’re moving on even a tiny bit, and the guilt that comes with that.
Instead, The Greatest Hits is supposed to be a rom-com, or at least a movie about healing. Or about music. It’s not very rom-com, mostly because it’s not actually funny, it’s more in the vein of movies that are badly thrown in this genre without actually being comedies and though it is a romance, it’s also not actually one if you want to go by the rules of the genre because hopeful open-endings are not the stuff the romance genre requires.
Let’s call it a drama, okay? How about we do that? It’s closer to being one than it is a comedy, that’s for sure.
But is The Greatest Hits a movie about healing? I’m not sure either. Despite Max’s hopeful ending — if keeping your life, which you never know when you’re going to lose, and losing a great love is what you call hopeful — I didn’t come out of the movie feeling healed. Harriet might have learned a lesson about how to travel through time and fix Max’s story, but did she learn a lesson about how to fix Harriet? To be determined.
If anything, The Greatest Hits is a movie about the power of letting go. Except, for a movie that basically spells out everything, this is one idea The Greatest Hits keeps way too close to the vest. Why should I let go? Why is that even good? What lessons am I getting out of it? Why doesn’t someone tell me, as the movie tells me basically everything else?
Because that’s what this movie relies on. Dialogue. So much of it. Everyone talks about feelings. Well, every secondary character. Exposition, exposition, exposition. Harriet doesn’t talk all that much. Max doesn’t talk either, because he’s not a real character, he’s a ghost, so we only see the good moments. He only exists so we can miss him. And later, so we (and Harriet) can let go of him and so he can then be happy? Because she’s the problem? I don’t know, I missed the point somehow.
We haven’t even talked about David, who is a new beginning. Except he isn’t, since Harriet also has to let go of him, because of reasons and life and who needs happiness? Make it make sense.
But in a movie called The Greatest Hits, at least there’s music to rely on, right? Wrong. This is the most unmemorable soundtrack in the history of soundtracks. I should have been singing along to every song, instead I was googling. Why was I googling?
Overall, The Greatest Hits was uninspired, and though there were good moments throughout, it’s hard to enjoy them when the movie takes them all away by relying on a re-do that feels less like a twist and more like a cop-out. The movie wasn’t horrible — I’ve watched much worse movies. It just wasn’t great, and perhaps the problem is I was expecting so much better.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of The Greatest Hits? Share with us in the comments below!
The Greatest Hits is now available to stream on Hulu.
