BUDDY'S SONG centers on a teenaged boy coming to terms with his parents' separation and his father's pushy domination. But the film moves from family drama to rock and roll fantasy rather quickly--a transformation that replaces dramatic tension with perfunctory feel-goodism.
Rock and roll loving Terry (Roger Daltrey), an ex-convict, takes his teenage son, Buddy (Chesney Hawkes) to a teddyboy convention. Buddy, however, uses the occasion to engineer a meeting between his estranged parents. The pair barely have time to say hello before disaster strikes. Terry has been
given some stolen jewelry, and when cops show up, Buddy panics and triggers his father's arrest. While his father is in jail, Buddy, wracked with guilt over the incident, learns to play his father's beloved music on guitar, and begins writing his own songs.
Terry gets out of jail. His wife, Carol (Sharon Duce), agrees to move in with him again, but living with Terry, who often seems more adolescent than his son, isn't easy, and the couple splits up. Terry gets work at a junk yard and starts video-taping weddings part-time, but he is far more
interested in his son's career as a rocker, getting Buddy a gig with a rock'n'roll wedding band. Buddy passes that audition, and forms his own band, The Hurt.
The band's name is certainly appropriate; Buddy is torn apart at the sight of his father with another woman. And when his mother discusses her boyfriend's offer to move them to London, he is virtually speechless.
Terry insists on managing The Hurt. Sticking to his rocker roots, he changes the name to The Wild Ones. But he also organizes a tour, pays for a recording session, and shoots a video. This hard work wins the band a recording contract, but there's a catch: the record company wants the band to
change its name and fire its manager. Buddy and the group remain loyal to Terry, but Terry turns the situation into a triumph--demanding the record company buy him out of his contract. He uses the money to start a video company.
BUDDY'S SONG is particularly effective when it concentrates on the tricky triangle of relationships between Buddy, his mother and his pushy-but-loving father. Daltrey's thick-headed portrait captures the best intentions lurking within his inarticulate character. But when it turns into a
rock'n'roll fable, like a poor man's THE COMMITMENTS, director Claude Whatham's film feels contrived and cheesey. Hawkes is a fine singer, but the band's material and "look" hardly seem hip. Hawkes also conveys a careful sense of anguish as he wrestles with being a dutiful son and an independent
young man. It's a tough predicament. After all, rock'n'roll films used to be about teenagers rebelling against their parents; what's a boy to do when his father is leading the charge? In this case, he plays a synthesizer at the risk of annoying the old man. (Adult situations, nudity.) leave a comment
