POWER BALLAD

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Alex

American Rick Power (Paul Rudd) lives in Ireland with his Irish wife Rachel (Marcella Plunkett) and their teenage daughter Aja (Beth Fallon). When he was younger he used to be in a band that had some success in the late 80s in a band called Octagon, but now he makes a living as the lead singer for a wedding band. As the film starts, he and his band – which includes his best friend Sandy (Peter McDonald) and band leader Binzer (Rory Keenan) are playing at a small wedding, which Rick imagines as being a massive stadium. He takes a break from the set list to play one of his old original songs, but the crowd doesn’t know it and becomes bored. Binzer tells him that they aren’t there to be rock stars.

Their next wedding gig is at a very fancy castle for an upscale wedding. The groom is American and the bride is Irish, and the wedding has been receiving a lot of local attention because one of the groom’s best friends is former boy band superstar Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), who hasn’t found strong success as a solo artist despite some of his former bandmates doing so. During the band’s performance, the groom asks Rick if Danny can come up on stage and sing a song with him. Rick is hesitant, but the band insists that the bride and groom make the calls, so Danny joins the band onstage and performs “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder. Danny brings Rick in to duet with him and the two have a great performance that the crowd loves. Rick, who initially thought Danny was nothing special, is impressed by him.

After the set, Rick steps out back to smoke a joint and runs into Danny. Danny asks if he can have some, and the two smoke and get to chatting. Danny asks Rick why he stopped playing with his band – Rick explains he still writes but while touring in Ireland he met Rachel and then they started a family. He took a year off and when he returned to his label he was dropped. The two keeping smoking and drinking, and Danny brings Rick into a music production space. Danny plays Rick some samples of the new solo album he’s working on – Rick likes it, but offers Danny some ideas for melody and note changes that Danny really enjoys. Danny is having a hard time launching his solo album and has lots of different directions he wants to go. Rick picks up a guitar and plays Danny some of a song he wrote called “How to Write a Song Without You”, that ends with the line “every song I ever wrote in my life is about you”. As the evening ends, Rick encourages Danny to play the music he wants to play, and Danny tells Rick he is too good for a wedding band and gives him his manager’s card to look him up if he’s in LA. On the way out of the venue, an assistant brings Rick a parting gift from Danny: one of his very expensive guitars.

Danny and Rick’s performance from the wedding goes a little viral. Danny returns to Los Angeles to the mansion he lives in with his girlfriend Marcia (Havana Rose Liu). He plays her some of his new tracks, which she feels are fine. He meets with his manager Mac (Jack Reynor), who has listened to Danny’s new tracks. He likes them but doesn’t think any are strong enough to be a hit single. He tells Danny that he needs to introduce the world to a new Danny, and tells him the internet is joking that he’s a wedding singer. Back in Ireland, Rick plays one of his newest songs for Aja called “Satellite”, about a woman who is lonely and adrift. Aja tells him it feels old – women aren’t lonely anymore. In Los Angeles, Danny sits at his piano and begins playing “How to Write a Song Without You”, which Marcia overhears and begins listening to. She asks who the song is about – when he says it’s about her, she is deeply touched and says it’s the most romantic thing she’s ever heard. She tells him he needs to record it.

Six months later, Rick is at a shopping mall when the music in the background starts to feel familiar to him. He realizes that it is “How to Write a Song Without You”, and rushes home excited to tell his family that he wrote a hit song. They wonder if they’re going to be rich because of it, but Rick doesn’t know. He asks if they remember him playing the song for them, but they don’t – they explain he plays so many samples and demos that it’s hard to remember that specific one. Similarly, his band do not remember the song or him playing it for them. No one seems like they particularly believe Rick, who insists he wrote the songs but can’t find any recordings or demos in his many many music files on his computer. Rick attempts to call Mac with the number from the card Danny gave him, but is unable to get anyone to take him seriously. His daughter urges him to seek legal counsel – he meets with attorneys who tell him without any demos or evidence of the song existing he doesn’t have any recourse.

On the set of the “How to Write a Song Without You” music video shoot, Mac tells Danny about the messages he’s gotten from Rick and asks Danny if there’s any truth to the idea that Rick wrote the song. Danny says he remembers jamming after with Rick, but that he was so high and drunk he doesn’t remember that and says there’s no truth to the idea. Mac then calls Rick and tells him that he asked Danny personally and he denied it – he then threatens Rick that if he continues down this path he will bury him in lawsuits. Meanwhile, “How to Write a Song Without You” goes all the way to number one and Danny’s career skyrockets – he and Marcia break up. Rick becomes angrier and more depressed as more people around him in Ireland make fun of him for claiming to have written the song.

At another wedding gig, one of the brides asks the band to play “How to Write a Song Without You”. Rick bluntly refuses, and Binzer again tells him the client decides and demands they play it. Rick gets into a physical brawl with Binzer, who fires him from the band. Sandy quits in solidarity with Rick. Later, Rick is driving with Rachel and Aja in the car when “How to Write a Song Without You” comes on the radio. Aja likes the song and wants to listen, but Rick angrily changes the station on the dash and in doing so loses control of the car, which careens off the road and flips over. Everyone is injured but okay, and when they get home Rachel tells Rick he needs to leave. She says with him being fired she doesn’t know how they’re going to pay their bills, and tells him to stop dreaming. Rick angrily says he’s tired of living with two women who don’t believe him and storms out, packing a bag and going to stay at Sandy’s. On the way there, he sees a street musician playing “Falling Slowly’, and is angry when two teens steal the tips out of his guitar case. Sandy relays that Aja texted him with a message for Rick – she believes him. Rick resolves to go to Los Angeles and solve this once and for all, and Sandy goes with him.

Danny has thought about the Rick situation, and goes to Mac to suggest that maybe they should just pay Rick. Mac explains that Danny told him to kill the situation and so he did – he explains it would be a really bad look if the story went public. Rick and Sandy go to Danny’s concert at the LA Forum, and afterwards attempt to get into the backstage area – Sandy fakes a phone call to Rick pretending to be Danny, but the security doesn’t buy it. Just as they give up, they run into the bride and groom from the wedding, who offer to give them a ride to the after party at Danny’s house. At the party, Rick and Sandy split up. A beautiful woman hits on Sandy but he is more drawn to one of Danny’s beautiful guitars, which he starts playing. Rick follows Danny and two women up to his balcony where they get in the hot tub. Rick reveals himself and Danny asks the women to leave so they can talk. Rick climbs into the hot tub fully clothed and tells Danny that having a credit on the song would’ve changed his entire life forever, and demands Danny admit he wrote the song. Danny seems to give, and Rick insists he knew he wasn’t crazy and wants to know why he’s done this. Danny attempts to leave and in trying to stop him Rick accidentally pushes him over the balcony. Mac begins coming upstairs and Rick jumps over the balcony as well.

Both bloody and disheveled Danny and Mac continue to fight on the street. Rick tells Danny that he knows he could never have written the song, and that they both know it. Danny wants to know why, and Rick explains that the song was never a love song – he wrote it about his daughter after she was born. That he was so scared about giving up the band for his family but he stayed and it’s the best thing he’s ever done, and that’s where the song comes from. Rick tells Danny how disappointed he was, how he liked Danny and thought Danny seemed real. Danny tells Rick he doesn’t know how much pressure he is under, and he wanted so badly to create something real. Security arrives and Rick and Sandy flee, and Rick tells Sandy he got what he needed. Back in Dublin, Rick returns home where Rachel asks him if he got Danny to admit it. Rick is surprised that Rachel believes he wrote the song – she tells hims he does, and that they got robbed, and sometimes that’s what happens. They reconcile, and Rick goes back to Binzer to ask for his job back. The band brings him back, and at their next performance, “How to Write a Song Without You” is requested. Rick tells the crowd it’s not about what the song is about, but it’s about who’s listening.

Aja looks at old photos on her dad’s computer, and finds a video from one of her youngest birthdays. In the background, Rick is playing the piano… and Aja hears that it is a few lines from “How to Write a Song Without You”. She is thrilled, and excitedly runs to tell her mom. Some time later, Rick again walks by the street musician, and this time leaves a massive wad of bills inside his guitar case – it seems like he got the royalties from the song. Rick’s original music begins playing, the song is about Dublin to LA, indicating that he’s returned to making his own original music.

Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is a former rocker and current wedding singer who lives in Ireland with his wife and daughter. He plays a wedding where former boy band star Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas) is a guest, and he joins Rick onstage to sing a duet. Afterwards the two drink and smoke and jam on music together, and Rick plays a little of a song he wrote called “How to Write a Song Without You”.

Six months later, Rick is stunned to discover Danny has recorded the song, which becomes a number one smash hit. Rick cannot find any demos or evidence that he wrote it, and no one else remembers him playing it. He alienates everyone in his life over his anger, and eventually goes to Los Angeles to confront Danny, who admits that he was under pressure along with not remembering the night too well, and Rick leaves without any credit but satisfied knowing he was right. Later, his daughter finds an old home video where in the background Rick is playing “How to Write a Song Without You”. When we next see Rick, he leaves a huge tip for a street musician, indicating he did get the monetary credit for the song, and Rick’s new original music plays, showing that he’s back to making his own music again.