“The Ballad of Wallis Island” (2025) occupies a niche of “feel-good” cinema that has been strangely dormant within the past few years. Given how frequently mid-budget films aimed at adults are sent to streaming services, and how infrequent it is to see earnest character dramas that aren’t intended to be award season contenders, there is an aspect of “The Ballad of Wallis Island” that feels deliberately old-fashioned. It’s no coincidence that the film takes place in a secluded location in which technology and tourism culture seems to have been cut off in the 1980s; while it isn’t a period piece, “The Ballad of Wallis Island” goes out of its way to not invoke any aspects of modernism that could complicate its heartfelt premise.

“The Ballad of Wallis Island” centers on the washed-up folk singer Herb McGwyer (John Basden), who accepts an unusual letter from the proclaimed fan Charles...