The Nameless Ballad on paper is an interesting change from Federico Zampaglione previous film, The Well (which i quite liked), as this later movie is an old fashioned ghost/haunted house story.
Sam Gallo is an upcoming musician that, when hit by writer’s block, is sent by his agent to an isolated villa in Italy, so he can focus on overcoming this creative slump, but there he starts seeing strange visions, especially after he finds a chest containing a diary of an Italian woman, a key to the villa’s piano and an unnamed, apparently unfinished composition….
The premise is decent, the main actor is solid, a couple of good jumpscares, but it becomes soon dull and slow moving (even for just 90 minutes), the more it goes on the more it basically falls apart, case and point the tragic backstory that explains more about the haunting… and almost made laugh, as it feels like accidental parody and makes the movie as a whole feel – frankly – stupid.
Even the theme of the music industry exploiting its talents is handled in such a juvenile, trite way that you’d almost want to side with the label to be contrarian…not that you will care about anyone’s fate, besides the dog, best character, i’m not even joking.
It feels like a big “Frankengum”, pieced together from chiclets found under other people’ classroom desks, masticated once more in the vain hope that if you keep chewing the flavour will come back.
There’s a difference between a deliberate old fashion approach and just being…. just dated, decrepit, reeking of that moth balls/napthalene scent you’d find when rummaging through your grandparents’ wardrobe. Kinda tragic because it’s obvious Zampaglione genuinely cares about the genre, he isn’t being cynical or anything, but nothing really works here, to my disappointment.
