THAT THING YOU DO!
A film review by Cooper Redwine
Copyright 1997 Cooper Redwine
Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry, Tom Hanks, Bill Cobbs, Rita Wilson. Director: Tom Hanks. Screenplay: Tom Hanks. MPAA Rating: PG (for some language). Running Time: 108 minutes.
THAT THING YOU DO! is a good-natured, simple-minded movie that has a few magic moments. I really wanted to like it, but I couldn't. It's too boring. Despite the presence of charismatic screen personalities like Tom Hanks and Liv Tyler, the film is not very funny, not very dramatic, and not very romantic. And for a movie about youth, the film is surprisingly lethargic. There may have been enough material here for 88 minutes, but the movie drones on for another full hour beyond that, and even the music eventually becomes tedious.
The basic story is a promising basis for an entertaining film: In 1964, four charming young men from Erie, Pennsylvania, form a rock group. Luck is with them for a while, and their signature song "That Thing You Do!" becomes a big hit. But success brings internal dissension that finally causes the group to break up.
In my opinion, the best thing about the film is its evocative sense of time and place, which I suppose should be credited to Tom Hanks as director. On the other hand, the music in the film is disappointing since it relies too heavily on playing "That Thing You Do!" over and over. The song is fun the first couple of times, but it started to grate long before its eleventh playing near the end of the film.
The actors who play the young rockers are fine in their roles, and Liv Tyler is well cast as the pretty and sweet girlfriend of one of the musicians. Tom Hanks plays the supporting role of the record executive who becomes the rock group's manager, and I must say that I found this usually reliable actor rather unconvincing here.
However, my main criticism of Hanks is in his capacity as screenwriter. There is too little conflict in the film for it to be a good drama, and there is too little that is funny in the film for it to be a good comedy. The maddening thing is that the core of a very good movie appears to be present in THAT THING YOU DO!, but what seems to be needed to bring it out is more pathos, faster pacing, and less monotonous music.
Even though I didn't like this movie, I recognize that people who think Tom Hanks can do no wrong, people who are nostalgic about the early 1960s, and people who enjoy fantasies set in the recent past will probably think that THAT THING YOU DO! is pretty good. However, for those not falling in any of the above categories, this film is at best something to have running off videotape in the background while doing unpleasant chores.
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