Film Review: Good Vibrations – 6/10

‘When it comes to punk: New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason…’

24 Hour Party People is an underrated masterpiece. The story of Tony Wilson and Factory Records has been immortalised in rock ‘n’ roll history, and rightly so. Michael Winterbottom’s biopic is a big part of that legend, but the film would be nothing without the music. The sheer amount of great music that came out of Manchester between 1977 when the Sex Pistols played the Manchester Free Trade Hall and 1997 when the Hacienda finally shut its doors is astonishing. What does this have to do with Good Vibrations? A film about the nascent Belfast punk scene at the tail end of the ’70s? Nothing really, but it does stand as a point of comparison. 24 Hour Party People is a film about a period of time that changed music forever. Good Vibrations on the other hand is essentially about a pioneering record store owner, one great band and a handful of others that were just pretty good…

Terri Hooley (Richard Dormer) is a dreamer. Unconcerned with the religious civil war going on around him, Hooley hatches a plan to put Belfast on the map for something other than bombings and bloodshed. His long suffering wife Ruth (a strangely subdued Jodie Whittaker) tries to keep her ambitious husband on the straight and narrow.

Richard Dormer is a decent actor (see his turn as Beric Dondarrion in Game of Thrones for evidence) but I’m not sure he has the charisma to carry this movie. Liam Cunningham, Adrian Dunbar and indeed Jodie Whittaker are all well known names on television now, but they do little to stamp their authority here. Negativity aside, this is a heartwarming story of music triumphing over adversity and it is always a treat to hear the music of the Undertones in any capacity, but this feels like a story that has been told a thousand times before. 24 Hour Party People really does loom large over the whole thing, and it begs the question as to whether a film about a record label can ever really be successful again after how archetypal the story of Factory Records has become.

I imagine for someone who was alive during the punk era, Good Vibrations is probably more affecting. For me, it was a perfectly good story told in a way that was solid rather than spectacular. Not worth seeking out.