“Loss may be forever, but grief is temporary.”
Harriet (Lucy Boynton) has been mourning the loss of her belated boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet; soon to be seen in the next “Superman: Legacy”) in the last two years. Since a car accident took Max’s life, when Harriett hears songs that played when they were together, she not only finds herself nostalgic and lost, but she is physically transported back to the past, to those moments with the same songs in the background. Happy flashbacks of their love at first sight, beaches, concerts, road trips or simple moments at home. Those precious memories that stay with her forever.
This is also why Harriet now works in a library and wears a noise-cancelling headphone when she’s out in public, to avoid accidental hearing of those songs, as at the present time, she would appear like having a seizure. However, at home when she’s alone, she’s purposely playing song after song in desperate attempts to prevent Max’s death. She soon learns she could affect her own actions, and no matter what she does, she couldn’t change Max’s actions that would alter his fate. It mirrors real life, where we can't control anyone else's actions.
One day at a grief support group meeting, she meets David (Justin H. Min), who joins the group after losing his parents. They have natural chemistry and their interactions are charming, with cute flirtations and conversations rolling fast. While Harriet is cautiously beginning to spend time with and create new memories with David, he’s rightfully crestfallen, worried and in disbelief when he finds out what’s really happening with Harriet.
Things seem going to be going in a loop with no solution, until a very surprising and reflectively affecting revelation bring them closer, and the two connect on a much deeper level as a result. Harriett comes to a painful realization what she will need to do in order to break the time travel cycle, although it will not come without a cost and that would also cost her newfound relationship and future with David.
If you have the ability to prevent the death of your loved one, but it means the two of you would have never met, would you take that choice? Were those moments still real if none of you would remember them? Would you erase the past if it means sacrificing a future filled with potentials?
Time travel is a paradox and therefore tricky to do right, even more challenging when coupled with romance. “The Greatest Hits” balances the heightened emotions with music as a time travel device and its timeless impact, but most importantly it shows the transformative power of letting go and moving on.
A story about love and loss, heartbreak and grief, healing and hope, faith and fate, “The Greatest Hits” hits all the right notes, it’s poignantly surreal and human.