High Fidelity meets The Butterfly Effect in Ned Benson’s hipster rom-com The Greatest Hits.  While that sounds like a fun movie mash-up, The Greatest Hits is anything but.

Music buff Harriet (Lucy Boynton of Sing Street and Bohemian Rhapsody) resists recovery after losing her boyfriend Max (Pearl’s David Corenswet) in a car accident, but she’s determined to save him.  By using a special ability to time-travel through music, Harriet listens to tunes that have a history with the former couple, and she transports herself to that moment in the past.  This talent becomes an obsession, then an addiction.  Instead of finding closure, Harriet feeds into her lovesickness which only further depresses her.  Though she keeps this pastime under wraps, the effects of time-travelling induce symptoms that concern witnesses.  Day by day, she feels more like an outsider, until she meets a similar wallflower, David.  David is played by rising star Justin H. Min, who earned acclaim for his performances in After Yang and Shortcomings.  Both of those movies are about personal connections, and are infinitely better and more interesting than The Greatest Hits.

The Greatest Hits has the potential to be this generation’s “break-up movie”, but even the lower-end of that sub-genre has energy to spare.  Benson’s filmmaking operates at a simmer, which means the melodrama and the sci-fi details are one-note and unadventurous.  Time-travelling sequences, for instance, are treated with the same “wow” factor as more standard scenes such as a Nelly Furtado sing-along between Harriet and David.  The story also dawdles along with unnatural dialogue, stilted performances, and a soundtrack so twee, it’ll lull you to sleep. 

For a movie where music plays a key factor, The Greatest Hits feels muted.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie