‘Power Ballad’ Review: Paul Rudd Seeks Song Credit From Nick Jonas in a Charming but Slight John Carney Comedy
Every movie that Irish filmmaker John Carney has created follows the throughline of the power of music. A simple song connects people, whether they're figuring out their identity or going through another crisis. It might seem to wear thin, but man, his features, including Once, Begin Again, and (my favorite) Sing Street, hit all the right chords. In Power Ballad, Paul Rudd plays a wedding band singer who writes a catchy song. Nick Jonas plays a successful artist who steals it. It shares the same charming hallmarks as his past fare, though this weaker effort loses his imaginative style in service of being a vehicle for his dueling stars and the plot-centric original song tying them together.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of Lionsgate
MPA Rating: R (For language throughout and some drug use.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 38 Minutes
Language: English
Production Companies: 30West, Screen Ireland, Likely Story, Distressed Films, Treasure Entertainment
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: John Carney
Writers: John Carney, Peter McDonald
Cast: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor
U.S Release Date: June 5, 2026
Rick Powell (Rudd) is a hapless Irish-based wedding singer who ditched his dreams of becoming a star ages ago in favor of starting a family. During one of his bandmates’ big gigs, Rick meets former boy-band superstar Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas). After singing Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” together – LOL at two white boys singing the lyrics “nappy-headed boy” – they smoke a little doobie and have a late-night jam session. Rick shares one of his original tunes with Danny, and they go about their merry ways.
Danny, feeling the pressure to write a hit song to keep his lavish lifestyle at the behest of brash manager Mac (a standout Jack Reynor), materializes Rick’s song into reality.
Months later, Rick learns his song was made… and he wasn’t given any credit or financial compensation. He can’t find any solid evidence that he’s the original writer. As the song becomes a worldwide sensation, Rick is ghosted by Danny and his team, so he crashes out. He and his loyal friend Sandy (Peter McDonald) embark on a quest to prove his ownership of the track.
Paul Rudd carries Power Ballad’s tune.
Paul Rudd as Rick and Nick Jonas as Danny in Power Ballad. Photo Credit: David Cleary
Power Ballad is pretty much John Carney pulling a Big Fat Liar plot (featuring classism). Instead of Rudd's Rick getting rightful vengeance on Jonas’ Danny right away, it concentrates squarely on Rick and his gradual descent into madness. Carney and co-writer Peter McDonald make Rick’s pursuit of providing proof both entertaining and funny, but also extremely stressful. He’s a middle-aged working-class wedding singer who’s relatable thanks to Rudd’s signature charm. The longer his efforts prove fruitless, the more viscerally infuriated Rick (and you) become. With how inescapable the track is, I envisioned this is how Drake reacted when Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was smashing records.
Paul Rudd delivers an exceptional central performance as Rick, highlighting immense charm and dorky-dad demeanor to make for a rootable underdog you want to see succeed. Rudd textures this increasing disillusionment, showcasing a fascinating side we’ve never seen him portray before. That’s not to mention that the man can actually sing. I was so astounded, if not shell-shocked, by Rudd having a really damn fantastic singing voice. It’s safe to say this is his career-best performance. If only he had a better partner performer than Nick Jonas.
I’m sorry to say this, but Joe was right there. I don’t mean to negate Nick’s angelic voice. “This Is Heaven” was in my Spotify Top 5 in 2021. Jonas is pretty weak, as he delivers all his lines completely monotone, and his acting chops still need a ton of work. His co-stars – Rudd, Havana Rose Liu (who makes a brief appearance as Danny’s girlfriend, Marcia), and Carney alum/scene-stealer Jack Reynor – all carry, or run circles around Jonas throughout. It’s the same as Adam Levine in Begin Again; stunt casting doesn’t work in its favor outside of the signature song performance. Jonas plays a metacommentary version of himself, arriving a decade too late despite the timely angle of his need to maintain relevancy.
Power Ballad delivers John Carney’s charm, but not the style.
The catalyst of the story is another Carney and Gary Clark (Sing Street) co-penned effort, “How to Write A Song (Without You),” a sweet rock ballad that has personal meaning to Rick, though Danny uses it as a love song. It’s a song that’s quite overplayed throughout the whole ordeal. You can practically hear it whispering, “Give me an Oscar nom. Give me an Oscar nom. Give me an Oscar nom.” With never-ending sequences of the song playing, all lacking the exhilarating imagination of Sing Street or the exciting spunkiness of Begin Again, by its fourth occurrence, you become sick of it as much as Rick does.
It took a while for Power Ballad to become engaging. Despite clocking in at a 98-minute runtime, it’s poorly structured, stewing too long in its setup and the soon-to-be-beefing-singers bonding over jams and extensive music scenes that’s so pedestrian in direction, even by Carney’s standards. Its script is not funny enough to compensate for its shortcomings, but the dramatic beats are largely put together. Up until its finale, it teetered in questionable, nearly irresponsible territory in trying to convey the power of a song despite the class disparity between the two characters. Thankfully, Carney and McDonald landed the plane well, but the turbulence during its descent was rocky.
FINAL STATEMENT
Despite being John Carney's weakest effort to date, Power Ballad is a fun, crowd-pleasing movie that features Paul Rudd rocking in his career-best.
