Mrs. Warren’s Profession
In early 20th-century England, Vivie Warren confronts her mother Kitty’s hidden fortune and the moral compromises that built it, forcing daughter and mother into an uncompromising reckoning.
DIRECTOR
Dominic Cooke (Follies)
ACTORS
Imelda Staunton • Bessie Carter • Kevin Doyle • Robert Glenister • Reuben Joseph
1h 57m • Rated M • Drama • UK
The island setting, the modest production, and the humor that often arises from character rather than contrivance work together to keep the film from ever feeling flat. On the flip side, a few feel the pacing is uneven, or that the secondary characters don’t always land. Still, even these criticisms tend to be soft and in the service of a film that is more heartwarming than perfect.
Overall, the consensus sees The Ballad of Wallis Island as a warm, wistful, and soul-soothing film—modest in scope but rich in feeling. It’s not trying to dazzle, but it digs in where it matters: loss, memory, music, human connection. For many, it’s one of the more emotionally satisfying films of 2025.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a quietly charming British comedy-drama directed by James Griffiths, written by and starring Tom Basden and Tim Key, alongside Carey Mulligan. The story centers on Charles, a lonely lottery winner living on a remote Welsh island, who invites his favorite folk duo—Herb McGwyer and Nell Mortimer—to reunite for a private performance. His motive isn’t just fandom; there are unresolved heartbreaks, nostalgia, and grief behind his idealistic gesture.
Critics are largely enamored with the film’s balance of humor and melancholy. Tim Key’s performance as Charles is praised for being endearingly awkward, verbose, and heart-on-sleeve, often using verbal wit to stave off silence. Basden as Herb, and Mulligan as Nell, deliver subtle, emotionally resonant performances, especially when the old romantic and artistic tensions surface—and you begin to feel what’s been lost, as well as what hope might remain. The original music is another highlight; the songs feel lived in, and the film uses them not as spectacle, but as emotional anchors.
Some reviewers point out that the premise is familiar—a fan’s devotee, reunited artists, romantic regrets—but argue that the execution elevates it.
CRITICS ROUNDUP
The critical consensus singles out Imelda Staunton’s ferocious, heartbreak-tinged performance as Kitty, balanced by Bessie Carter’s restrained but potent portrayal of Vivie, whose disillusionment becomes the production’s emotional engine. Dominic Cooke’s direction is described as elegant and incisive, amplifying Shaw’s debate-driven structure without letting it feel static. Some critics acknowledge occasional stage-bound pacing, but most agree the adaptation finds surprising freshness, delivering a story that feels as morally urgent now as when Shaw wrote it.
CRITICS ROUNDUP
A precise, passionately acted revival of Shaw’s moral collision.
Critics praise this National Theatre Live rendition for its sharp, absorbing retelling of George Bernard Shaw’s provocative drama, which follows Vivie Warren as she uncovers the truth about her mother Kitty’s wealth—namely, that it was built through a chain of brothels that funded Vivie’s education and comfortable life. Reviewers highlight how the production lays out this moral clash with clarity: Vivie’s modern, principled worldview colliding head-on with Kitty’s unapologetic pragmatism and the limited choices available to women of her era. The narrative’s slow unspooling of secrets, its arguments over respectability, work, agency, and virtue, and its mother-daughter emotional tensions are all noted as being rendered with striking immediacy.