The Greatest Hits (2024) Movie Review

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Background Information

Film Length	1 Hour 34 Minutes
Date Released	April 12, 2024
Where To Watch	Hulu
Director(s)	Ned Benson
Writer(s)	Ned Benson
Genre(s)	Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Content Rating	Rated PG-13

Content Information

• Dialog: Cursing
• Violence: Nothing Notable
• Sexual Content: Sexual Situations (Implied)
• Miscellaneous: Drinking, Smoking

Plot Summary

It has been two years since Max died in a car accident, and Harriet has found herself transported to their highlights whenever certain songs played around her.

She figures that since it appears she can affect the past when she is transported there, she can save him while her friend, Morris, pushes her to move on. But it isn’t until Harriet meets David that she has a solid reason to potentially leave Max in her past and focus on her future.

Collected Quote(s)

“Live your dash.”
— Dr. Evely n Bartlett (Retta) | Context: Focus on the time between the date of birth and death on your tombstone

Character Guide

Character’s Name	Actor’s Name
Max	David Corenswet
Harriet	Lucy Boynton
David	Justin H. Min
Dr. Evelyn Bartlett	Retta
Morris	Austin Crute

Character Description(s)

Max

Max was a musician who was with Harriet for four years and died in a car accident.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Pearl.”

Harriet

Harriet is a musician, more so on the production side than anything on stage, who has spent the last two years finding herself transported to moments she first heard a song or where she connected with Max over a song. All of which has led to her blacking out for a song’s length while she lived the moment.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

David

David is the son of antique shop owners, and is now holding onto the shop, even though it was never his dream to take it over after his parents died.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Shortcomings.”

Dr. Evelyn Bartlett

Dr. Bartlett is the host of the grief group Harriet and David attend when they meet, and she appears to be Harriet’s current psychologist.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Where’s The Money?.”

Morris

Morris is Harriet’s only friend, after she reportedly pushed others away, but with his push for her to move on, especially as he hears about David, he too may find himself growing tired of how stuck Harriet is, even if he gets she is still in mourning.

• The actor is also known for their role in “Trinkets.”

Review

Our Rating: Mixed (Divisive)

Good If You Like

• Stories about people who lost who they believed was the love of their life

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Highlights

The Soundtrack

While there are some recognizable voices like Lana Del Rey and Nelly Furtado, who is also in the movie, what “The Greatest Hits” does best is give you a slew of songs that give you a reason to stick around for the end of the credits, just to take down or maybe even take pictures of all the music you heard. For while there is a playlist on Spotify, it isn’t official.

Low Points

Everyone Is So Bland And Made To Be Perfect

“The Greatest Hits” doesn’t believe in making characters anything but likable. Harriet isn’t pushed to feel human, just someone who should be receiving your sympathy for losing a man she was with for four years. Which is understandable, the grief of losing someone you invested so much into.

However, the struggle comes in that despite how often we go into the past, we never see Max or Harriet as flawed or unlikable. Max is always the perfect boyfriend. We don’t even see the one flaw Morris points out of Max being a musician whose music was terrible unless Harriet punched it up. The same goes for Harriet. Even when she is trying to find ways to keep Max from dying, he plays it off in a way to make the situation adorable than any real conflict. Thus he is forever trapped in a rose-colored glasses version of how Harriet saw him and their relationship.

This makes it so hard to get into David and Harriet as a potential couple because he has the same issue. David is perfect. He is the newly orphaned child, trying to keep his parents’ antique shop alive, be a decent brother, and try to understand Harriet’s daily, sometimes willing, travels to the past to be with her ex.

As a viewer, it is frustrating since there are so many options presented as to why one guy isn’t as perfect as we thought. Whether it was something as small as Max having things come easy to him and not working as hard as Harriet or David worrying so much about how his sister is taking their parents’ death, he hasn’t processed it.

Never mind, the worry about legacy regarding the family shop, whether he spent enough time with them when they were alive, and all the ways to, even if they didn’t create flaws, at least made it seem he was a fully fleshed out human being with his own problems. Rather than introducing his issues and making them only rear their head when it is convenient – unlike Harriet’s issue, which can be triggered during a kiss, while trying to have sex, or even integrate her into his life.

Yet, ultimately, all “The Greatest Hits” seemed worried about was finding two attractive men with enough chemistry with the lead actress to present a good trailer and marketing materials, but not give you something you could connect to, yearn for, or take inspiration from while watching the movie.

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