The turntable spins on in the film The Greatest Hits. It is a fantasy romance that wants to infuse time travel by pulling on the heartstrings. Harriet (Lucy Boynton) finds a unique occurrence when discovering certain songs that can bring her back in time. Her time travel exploits bring her to various inflection points with her former boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet). Max tragically died in the past, and Harriet hopes she can save him through her time travel. However, her situation is conflicted because of the meeting of a new love interest. This challenges her quest to time travel and save her old boyfriend. The film presents an interesting question. However, the answer could be more inspiring. The film is overwrought with cliches and too much genre-blending, creating a record that skips rather than plays a beautiful melody.

The Greatest Hits offers a unique spin on the time travel story. Hearing specific songs triggers Harriet’s memory and can cause her to travel in time. As a result, she spends much of her time wearing headphones to avoid potential triggers. However, when she begins colliding with her past, there becomes an inherent desire to use her so-called power to save her old boyfriend, who tragically died. Does she change the past and affect the future, or does she leave what’s passed and move on with her life? Again, this is an interesting question, but the movie spends too much on formulaic plots and music video moments.
There is a paradox, as is often the case with these types of films. How do you affect the past without changing the future? In addition, there is a paradox in the film’s tone. On the one hand, it strives to be a silly fantasy, partly working with a premise as simple as musical time travel. However, the film also introduces a story about grief and recovery. The conflict of tones is not abnormal with romantic comedies, but in the case of The Greatest Hits, the genre-mixing is not something you want on repeat.

The story is far from a broken record, but the vinyl has severe scratches. In many ways, The Greatest Hits is like finding The Beatles’ White album, but upon pulling back the cover, it reveals a record playing a cacophony of sounds and shrieks. The album cover is nice, but what’s behind it is a sonic mess. The film lacks any logical underpinning, which may be asking too much for a romantic film about time-traveling record players.
Perhaps it is the expectation that when films like Anyone But You breathe new zest into the rom-com, a movie with a unique enough premise as The Greatest Hits might have something more to offer than the greatest hits of other rom-coms. The trouble is that even though this film plays the hits, they tend to feel overplayed and lacking any spontaneity or charm. Again, this is where the film needs help finding its footing. Much of the narrative plays like two different films mushed together, which craters the tone. On the one hand, it strives for silliness, and on the other, it is a tender story of heartbreak.

Time travel takes a back seat to a familiar will-they-won’t-they story. Will Harriet use time travel to save her old flame, or will she let the past rest? The suspense, such as there is, could be better. Even the revelations of time travel to her prospective new boyfriend, David (Justin Min), land on an anticlimactic note. The film plays like a song we’ve heard before, and even with a unique spin, the sound is far too familiar for enjoyment.
The film might have been better if it had stuck to a more severe tone, given that Lucy Boynton’s performance is one of a woman in the throes of grief and recovery. The film’s most decisive moments are her dealing with her grief, which might have made for a more satisfying story. Harriet is shown as maladjusted to the death of her boyfriend. She blames herself for the accident and spends her life living in regret, seemingly incapable of moving on with her life. Her performance is the film’s highlight, elevating the silly premise and whimsical tone. However, her performance is full-on serious while everyone else is playing to a different tune.

The source of the film’s drama involves a budding romance between Harriet and David. The two of them meet at grief counseling and strike a bond. This relationship affects Harriet’s intention to save her old boyfriend in the past. It is a classic time travel situation with all the familiar tropes. On its own, this story might have been a more robust avenue to pursue. The film attempts to straddle the time travel with melodrama. Aided by Boynton’s natural charisma, the viewer is invested in her struggle and potential recovery. However, the overreliance on formula creates a spinning vortex of confusion that even the presence of a DeLorean could not salvage this one.

The film presents time travel as omnipresent, which is a novel, but introducing such a concept is worthy of more description than simple exposition. Part of what makes time travel classics like Back to the Future work is the dynamics behind the operation. There is no Doc Brown figure in Harriet’s life nor some clever discovery akin to the Hot Tub Time Machine. This film plays similarly to Hot Time Machine, replacing the hot tub with a record player, but it lacks the charms, cleverness, or humor. There is never a direct interaction between the past and present, which makes the time travel play more like through-the-looking-glass moments without going through the glass.
The Greatest Hits plays like a significant missed opportunity. Too many cliches. Convoluted time travel logics. Melodrama on overload. The music plays loud in this film, but never enough to understand it, let alone desire to play it again.
The Greatest Hits will debut in select theaters on April 5, 2024, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. The film will be available to stream exclusively on Hulu on April 12th.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riDLqQ0Q15c]
The Greatest Hits plays like a significant missed opportunity. Too many cliches. Convoluted time travel logics. Melodrama on overload. The music plays loud in this film, but never enough to understand it, let alone desire to play it again.
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GVN Rating 5
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Favorite Genres include: horror, thrillers, drama. Three Favorite Films: The Dark Knight, Halloween & Jaws.