Le pouvoir des rêves

All the cast are great but Jessie Buckley is superb, portrayed a character which at times you could sympathise with, shake your head in disbelief and at the same time be urging her from the seat of your armchair to go for it! "Peace in this house" had me sobbing, the notes that Jessie hits, her tone beautiful. Dried my eyes and composed myself for the rest of the film and then left wiping my eyes again at the end of the last long; "Glasgow (no place like home)". Just wow!

The main character is a foul-mouthed impulsive hard-drinking ex-con neglectful mother of two with delusions of making it big in Nashville. She somehow is also a sympathetic character, and is beautifully played by Jessie Buckley. You might need subtitles occasionally to catch the full Glaswegian abuse and humour she manages to spout out. Other standouts are her two little children - remarkable performances by both - and a pretty impressive bit of character acting by Julie Walters as her despairing mum - complete with what sounded a decent accent, if a Sassenach can judge that. As for the music and the plot.... it does the job but for me only occasionally hit the real emotional spot.

I watched this at home on DVD from my public library.

I didn't know of Jessie Buckley before I saw this movie but I quickly became a fan. She is a wonderful, convincing actress and has a really beautiful singing voice, the kind you just want to listen to. She could also make a good Janis Joplin, she has the looks, sassiness, and can sing in that raspy style.

Here she is Rose-Lynn who has, at her early 20s age, already made her life very difficult for herself. She had two children by the time she was 18 and, as the movie starts she is just getting out of 12 months in jail for a failed drug delivery which involved trying to throw it over a prison wall. Her mother has been caring for her girl and her boy.

We see right away she is very carefree and mostly irresponsible. She feels entitled, she wants to sing country in Nashville, she doesn't want her children or anything else to block her path. She has performed regularly at the Glasgow (Scotland) Grand Ole Opry.

While this appears to mostly be a movie about an aspiring singer getting to Nashville, it is more a character study about this young woman who needs to dig deep and get her priorities straight, and to be a responsible mother to her two children. She does get to Nashville, in a peculiar twist of fate, but in the end she discovers that there's no place like home.

There's an abundance of very salty language, as seems to be common for many British movies, but if one can get past that then it is a really good movie, Jessie Buckley really shines. I want to see her in additional lead roles. Her interview on the DVD "extras" is really delightful and also serves to show how much the character Rose-Lynn is unlike her.

DEC 2020 Edit: Since my first viewing I have seen Buckley in several different roles and she is the real deal, she is always great. I just watched this movie again after 14 months and came away as impressed as I was the first time.

SEPT 2024 Edit: Ditto on this viewing. I am freshly amazed at how good Buckley is, as both a singer and an actress.

A young Scottish woman comes out of prison with the firm intention of fulfilling her dream and becoming a country singer in Nashville, Tennessee. Despite a bank account desperately empty. Despite two very young children she pathetically neglects.

The frontier between stubbornness and motivation is often very blurred and it is only a posteriori that one can judge, even if many external factors, perceptible or not, can influence the course of events. And, without unduly spoiling the script, I was expecting a sad ending. Moreover, the atmosphere of Le pouvoir des rêves (2018) quite often resembles those of Ken Loach's films with this inevitability that seems inescapable.

A very pleasant surprise!

I've struggled to conjure sufficient praiseworthy adjectives to describe this movie but ultimately they would all relate to the sublime Jessie Buckley who provides us with a 'to die for' performance that takes your breath away and leaves you absolutely astounded and in awe that such talent exists - absolutely outstanding!