The grieving tone of “The Greatest Hits” movie encapsulates audiences from the opening scene with a troubled Harriet (Lucy Boyton, “Bohemian Rhapsody”) staring at a timeline of her and her ex-boyfriend’s relationship that covers one of the walls in her living room. The music focused sci-fi romance premiered at SXSW on Thursday. It uniquely conveys a love letter to  music’s ability to connect people with influential times in their lives while also emphasizing the power of having a community in order to overcome grief. 

The film’s director and writer Ned Benson first thought of “The Greatest Hits” while living in Austin for a few months in 2008. He was inspired, in part, by Waterloo Records and continued to develop the idea over the past few years, inspired by the powerful connections people have to the music they listen to.

The film takes place two years after Harriet lost her boyfriend Max (David Corenswet, “Pearl”) in a car accident they both experienced. After the accident, every time Harriet hears songs associated with a memory of Max, she transports back in time to that memory for the duration of the song.  Because of grief and the fear that certain songs will cause her to lose consciousness and time travel in public, Harriet pushes away everyone except one of her friends and closes herself off from the outside world. She spends her time at home playing records in an effort to find a song to take her back to save Max.

Harriet’s efforts to isolate herself and stop Max from dying become complicated when she meets an awkward new member of her grief support group named David (Justin H. Min, “The Umbrella Academy”). David’s empathy paired with his efforts to make Harriet feel comfortable as she is, rather than pushing her to get over her grief, help Harriet start to move on as she falls in love with David. 

In order to emphasize the association of music with memories and people close to oneself, as Harriet and David grow closer, music plays a big role in the majority of their scenes. For example, David first gets Harriet’s number while they argue over a rare record, have their first date at a concert and they sing karaoke together when they first hang out with David’s sister and her friends. 

Although it would have been nice to have a deeper understanding of Harriet as a person beyond her relationship with Max, the film successfully conveyed the message of the power of music and having a community to offer support through difficult times. The film skillfully told this message through the sci-fi romance in a way that proves entertaining and moving. 

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