A movie that I had no expectations for ended up being even worse than I thought it’d be. Am I shocked? No. But look, watch the movie for yourself and form you own opinion. I never been a very huge fan of romances, they really have to be really innovative or interesting enough to hook me. The Greatest Hits just feels like more of the same, you know? Like, it’s not horrible but you’ve seen movies like this so many times and it just fails to bring anything new, even though they tried really hard to.
Harriet finds art imitating life when she discovers certain songs can transport her back in time literally. While she relives the past through romantic memories of her former boyfriend, her time travelling collides with a burgeoning new love interest in the present. As she takes her journey through time, she must consider whether or not she should change the past.
All the idea of time traveling can be interesting, and I liked the concept and how they want to innovate within the romance genre, but I must tell you that this attempt just didn’t work out the way it should’ve. Lucy Boynton is, without a doubt, the best aspect of this movie. Her performance is deep and natural; you can see the character’s frustration and grief through her face and actions. Grief, this is the main focus of the movie. It’s a story about getting over your past trauma and experiencing new things, living a new life—a life that you know will be better for you, but you don’t want to leave the other one behind.
Trust me, many people will like this movie; you might be one of them. I just thought this movie really didn’t work for me for a couple of reasons. Starting off with the pacing—it’s terrible, even with its 94-minute runtime. The movie just kept going, and sometimes it felt like it wasn’t moving, and they take so long to get where they want that it ends up being tiring for me. It really felt like 2 hours to me.
The most important thing about a romance story is the chemistry between the leads, and I must confess that this is almost not the case here. It takes a while until you see Lucy’s and Justin’s characters work out together, and this really affected my experience with it. This is one of those cases where the concept is good, but the execution just couldn’t live up to the expectations. I thought I’d enjoy this one more than I usually do with romances, but well, it didn’t happen.
As 2024 continues to be a mediocre year for movies, The Greatest Hits is a lackluster tale of love and grief that, despite its intriguing concept, was ultimately executed poorly. Lucy Boynton’s earnest effort and strong performance weren’t sufficient to keep me entertained throughout the entire film.
The Greatest Hits releases in theaters on April 5 and on Hulu on April 12.
