THAT THING YOU DO!
A film review by Rebecca Wan
Copyright 1997 Flying Inkpot
Directed by: Tom Hanks
Written by: Tom Hanks
Cast: Tom Everett Scott (Guy Patterson),
Liv Tyler (Faye Dolan),
Jonathon Schaech (James "Jimmy" Mattingly II),
Steve Zahn (Lenny),
Ethan Randall (Ethan Embry; The Bass Player),
Tom Hanks (Mr. White),
Chris Ellis (Phil Horace),
Alex Rocco (Sol Siler),
Bill Cobbs (Del Paxton)
Produced by : 20th Century Fox / Clavius Base / Clinica Estetico
Rating : **1/2
Run Time: 110 Minutes
Theatres: GV
THAT THING YOU DO, Tom Hanks' first writing and directing effort as well as his ticket into the Hollywood realm of Actor-Directors, is a sunny, soul-less psuedo-look at a one-hit band from smallsville and their meteoric rise to fame.
In Erie, PA., a garage band lead by vocalist and songwriter Jimmy (Jonathon Schaech) enter and win a local talent contest. This is entirely due to sit-in drummer Guy (Tom Everett Scott), who joins at the last minute when their regular drummer breaks his arm, and their original, catchy ditty that is also the film's title song, "That Thing You Do!" An appliance salesman at his father's store, Guy digs jazz rhythms rather than the monotonous, mindless time-keeping that the three-chord band requires. He increases the song's tempo at the last minute, and the faster speed energizes the tune enough to get the whole dancefloor shaking and, erm, twisting, I guess.
The win lands the band a gig at a nearby pizza restaurant near the airport, and, like all airport restaruant gigs, this obviously leads to Bigger Things. They make a record for fun, play more gigs, and sign with a otherwise tacky agent who manage to get the local radio station to play their song.
*This* then leads to their meeting with a Big-Time Play-Tone Records agent, played by Tom Hanks, Mr White. White is kind of like those slick, snakey agents that all successful entertainers in TV-Movies have to meet and lose their careers to before they learn to value The Important Things In Life. Once he signs them with Play-Tone, he starts moulding them. He dresses them all in matching suits ("You look good in gold, have I told you that? Very good") but develops their individual "trademarks" (Guy gets a pair of sunglasses), changes their name to the easier-understood "Wonders" and puts limits on the type of songs they write.
Meanwhile, they've joined the Play-Tone state-fair tour, with groupie girlfriend Faye (Liv Tyler) coming along as their costume mistress, their single is soaring up the billboard charts, and each performance is increasingly mobbed by the hordes of screaming teenage women that I've only seen in black and white on Beatles' documentaries. The Wonders' popularity eventually leads to the ultimate big-step: their national debut in a television broadcast.
It's at this point that things, which are already fraying at the seams, fall completely apart. Lead singer Jimmy, already prone to throwing his increasingly esoteric and artistic temper about, abruptly severs his relationship with the gorgeous Faye (a sure sign that he's mad) and finally quits the band. Lenny, the most easy-going of the four, takes off for Vegas and doesn't come back, and the last band member runs off with newly-found Marine friends to Disneyland. Guy is left alone in the first "real" recording studio he's ever been in on the day of taping their new song.
Of course it doesn't end that way. In the same breezy vein that has navigated the narrative from having The One-ders in their tacky small-town environment to becoming The Wonders in their tacky big-time glitzy showbusiness outfits, Guy ends up meeting Del Paxton, a jazz soloist whom he revers, and makes a studio recording with him. Well sure, that's what all drummers from Beatles-imitation bands long to do.
Structurally, THAT THING YOU DO is a string of well-timed punchlines set to sixties' musical drivel and a couple of more sophisticated riffs. It's hard to believe that drummer Guy is good enough to replicate professional jazz solo recordings and jam intelligently with his jazz idol Del Paxton (Bill Cobbs), yet tolerates and enjoys his mundane participation in The Wonders' success. Nor is it easy to believe that the two Wonders bassists, whom Hanks takes pains to point out as finding the song's basic chords difficult to follow when Guy picks up the tempo at the contest, easily tread smooth, complicated basslines in the many variations of the song that follow as The Wonders develop.
As though to qualify the story's chosen hero, Guy, Hanks has made him a jazz-lover, someone who goes on to higher musical things once the pop fantasy diversion is done with. For heavens' sake, we are actually told that he eventually founds and teaches jazz composition at a music school.
Like this outcome, nothing else in the film really makes sense. Characters enter, and leave, and situations occur without any real motivation, and the one serious scene in the film where Faye confronts Jimmy is fraught with maudlin nonsense that undercuts her previously likeable, sharp yet easy-going character. In the end, there's nothing to care about in THAT THING YOU DO! because nothing bad, or good, has actually happened. Like the title song, THAT THING YOU DO! is a shallow briefing on the so-called lives of teenage pop stars that doesn't bother with the heavy stuff, and disposes of them in the fastest possible way.
Still, I guess there are many reasons to like THAT THING YOU DO! Liv Tyler, who seems to be spreading a little, is probably one of them, and the catchy, guiless title song is another. I saw this film more than a week ago and the tune is *still* spinning around in my head. Another plus is the sheer casualness of everything: like the guiless, self-contained theme song That Thing You Do! everything in the film is mostly light-hearted dissin'. No Francis Ford Cuppola (WHEN PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED) or Oliver Stone-type angst for Hanks. This movie has got to sing!
I think this film is worth $7, especially for those who want a little more believability than local film ARMY DAZE (and much higher production values), are sick of cop-slash-robber movies with flat jokes like BULLETPROOF, and aren't all that into the "real-life" suspense of RANSOM. THAT THING YOU DO! is a happy, happy film.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System: * Wait for the TV2 broadcast. ** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha! *** Pretty good, bring a friend. **** Amazing, potent stuff. ***** Perfection. See it twice.
Rebecca">href="mailto:rebecca@cyberway.com.sg">Rebecca Wan is a full-time turnip at the famed Jardin Des Vertes.
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