It’s hard to believe that a genre as vital to American popular music as country (and its cousin, country and western) had a bad rap for a while among many dwellers in major northern cities, who looked down their noses at what they mistook as simple tunes for the unsophisticated. Musical forms come and go, of course; for instance, the big-band era, born in the midst of the Depression, effectively ended with the close of World War II, yet its sound recently has been making a comeback. But country music is singular in that it has long had a distinctly regional flavor. It reflects the values of tight-knit small-town or remote communities where home and family are paramount, and often expresses a world-weary lament for bygone better days. Historically it has addressed class issues and hard times, which may in part be why, in a society where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing exponentially, this musical format is again robust, extending its appeal well beyond rural areas.
Wild Rose has a foot in both camps, with Rose-Lynn both wanting and resisting reconciliation with her family as she recklessly plows ahead, grasping at any opportunity to make it big. She uses people, beguiling them with her charm and pluck while dissembling or outright lying through her teeth. She breaks promises to her children, who so yearn for her love. She disses her parole advocate in court, correcting him that she is a “country”—not “country and western”—singer. (That distinction seems to rest largely on orchestrations, simpler string instruments like banjo, fiddle, guitar, autoharp, and dulcimer for country versus instruments with a bigger sound, like steel guitar, slide guitar, and drums for country and western.) Before long Rose-Lynn takes advantage of the woman whose house she cleans, an upper-crust Anglo African culture lover (Sophie Okonedo) who bankrolls her trip to London to meet a top music broadcaster (BBC Radio 2’s Bob Harris, playing himself). He advises her to write her own songs; she has doubts.
Directed by Tom Harper. R, 101 min. Fri 6/28-Sun 6/30, 11:35 AM, 2:15, 5:05, 7:50, and 10:20 PM; Mon 7/1-Thu 7/4, 2:15, 5:05, 7:50, and 10:20 PM. Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark, landmarktheatres.com, $12.50.
