Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The 2024 romance movie “The Greatest Hits” has an eerily similar plot to the 2022 film “Press Play” – in both stories, the female protagonists are able to travel back in time while listening to certain music, which gives them a chance to save their dead boyfriends. So, even though it’s not wholly original, the plot is still quite unique compared to many run-of-the-mill romances out there.
Written and directed by Ned Benson, “The Greatest Hits” stars Lucy Boynton as primary protagonist Harriet Gibbons, who works in a library and is in a grief-support group to come to terms with the loss of her boyfriend Max (David Corenswet). However, Harriet also possesses a stranger power – to travel back in time briefly every time she hears a song that holds a memory of her dead boyfriend. While her best-friend Morris Martin (Austin Crute) constantly convinces her to work towards moving on, Harriet is busy spending all her free time trying to find a record she thinks will help her go back to a memory that could save Max. Not open to giving herself a second shot at love, Harriet begins to re-think her mission when she meets the charming David Park (Justin H. Min), who is also working through his own problems.
Harriet’s grief and inability to move on from Max’s death are immediately established in the opening sequences of “The Greatest Hits.” From refusing to speak up at her therapy group sessions to refusing to discard Max’s belongings, Harriet desperately clings to the past, sure that she can change it and have a happier ending with “the love of her life.” It helps that Lucy Boynton and David Corenswet are incredibly cute as Harriet and Max, and their chemistry will divide viewers over who to root for—the dead boyfriend Max or the potential future boyfriend David Park.
Despite the time-travel trope, “The Greatest Hits” doesn’t require a lot of special effects, making it a visually aesthetic romance movie centered around loss, memories, and music. From classics like Mozart’s “Fantasia in D Minor” to Nelly Furtado’s chart-topping pop song “I’m Like A Bird,” the music featured in the film is an eclectic mix. Of course, the matter of how amazing the selection of tracks is highly subjective. For me, except for the hits I was already familiar with, none of the unfamiliar numbers made me go, “Ooh, what’s that? I need to look it up on the internet now!” It’s something the characters argue about too—they don’t always agree on what tunes are great, so we’ll all just have to agree to disagree on how many of the songs are worthy of the tag “The Greatest Hits.”
Given its sombre themes of love, loss, grief, and fragility of the human heart and mind, I feel like ‘The Greatest Hits” could’ve been a little longer than its 1 hour 34 minute runtime. Due to lack of time, Justin H. Min’s character David Park doesn’t get enough space, even though he is a primary romantic lead. Except for the fact that he is a good-looking guy dealing with loss and emotional baggage too, we don’t get to know much about him.
Lucy Boynton’s portrayal of Harriet is beautiful, her turbulent emotions palpable in each scene. When she goes from crying to smiling, her face lights up the frame. Austin Crute supporting part as her BFF Morris is very entertaining, especially since he doesn’t hold back from criticizing Harriet’s self-sabotaging behavior. There aren’t many other characters, and I liked the razor sharp focus on Harriet’s struggles, and how the creators don’t waste the tight runtime on forced jokes or unnecessary character interactions.
For a romance film with a surreal time-travel twist, “The Greatest Hits” is a real good one-time watch, especially if you haven’t seen other titles with similar plot twists. The climax is emotional, open-ended, and closes Harriet’s life-record on a hopeful note.
Rating: 7.5 on 10. You can stream the film on Hulu or Disney Plus.
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