"I led you here Sir, for I am Spartacus!"

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2018)

One very weird thing about the movie before I go on to anything else. What's the deal with the bass player who replaced Chad (Giovanni Ribisi) with the broken arm? He doesn't have a name! It never came up in the picture and he's listed in the movie's end credits as T.B. Player, translated here on IMDb as 'The Bass Player". I wonder what went into that script writing decision. There was even a scene when the band was getting ready to go into the recording studio and Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) was asking for Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech) and Lenny (Steve Zahn), but not Mr. X. That just baffled me. By the way, it was Ethan Embry in the role with that dubious honor.
Well this looks like a nifty tribute to all those one hit wonder bands throughout the decades who made it with one big Top 40 hit and were virtually never heard from again. So much so that the band's name in the picture is a spin off of the one-hit wonder concept; they called themselves 'the One-Ders', the gimmick being that everyone else read their name as the 'O-neders'. It would have been simple enough to place a hyphen in their name to eliminate the confusion but apparently they needed to keep a running gag in the flick. That got a little overworked in the story until Tom Hanks came on board to change the spelling and make things right.
I'd have to second another reviewer's remarks by stating that it was pretty fresh to see a picture without a lot of swearing and gratuitous sex to appeal to a youthful audience. The actors were a clean cut lot modeled to some extent on The Beatles, which back in 1964 seemed to be the way a lot of the British Invasion bands presented themselves. It was interesting to note that when "That Thing You Do' made it to Number #71 on the Billboard Top 100, the song immediately above it was 'Tell Me' by the Rolling Stones. So the guys were in pretty good company for a fictitious band.
My favorite characters in the picture oddly enough weren't any of the 'One-Ders'. I liked Liv Tyler in her role as the put upon girlfriend of Jimmy Mattingly; her blistering breakup with Jimmy really changed the tone of the story there for a minute. The guy I really liked was hotel owner and doorman Lamarr, effectively portrayed by Obba Babatundé. Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think I've ever seen him before and thought he played a wonderful character. I'll have to keep my eyes open for another appearance of his.
Over all, not a bad little story that charts the meteoric rise and fall of one of the era's fictional bands. But don't fret, there were plenty of real ones you can pay tribute to - how about The Surfaris (Wipe Out), The Standells (Dirty Water), and The Capitols (Cool Jerk) to name a few. Any one of those is enough to perk your ears up when they come on the radio.