A kick to watch, sing along with, and dance with

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2006)

This isn't a movie that should make a deep, lasting impression on anyone -- it's just not that kind of movie. It is the kind of movie you can watch more than once just to enjoy the music. (I wore out two soundtrack tapes playing it in my car!) Okay, so it's a frothy little movie. Frothy can be good -- dessert has it's place on the menu! And for those of us who played in some version of a garage band in our teens, it's a chance to see how our wildest dreams might have come true.
And it's always a kick in Tom Hanks' movies to see familiar faces pop up. Steve Zahn, who plays Lenny in this movie, also shows up in "You've Got Mail" and "From The Earth To The Moon." Peter Scolari, of course, was Mr. Hanks' costar on "Bosom Buddies."
Mr. Hanks is a keen observer of people. I've known more than one musician who put all his emotions into his music, leaving little or none for the people in his life -- in this movie, it's Jimmy. I've known guys who are so self-absorbed that they don't realize that women are drawn to them and then brushed away -- Guy ignores his girlfriend's chatter in his own excitement, and later, as a waitress tells him her life story, he's obviously just waiting for her to stop talking.
And I've been the girl ready to follow her musician anywhere, singing along with every note he sings. Poor Fay -- she really thought Jimmy loved her.
It's interesting that Guy and Fay end up together -- for the first time in the movie, he's actually listening to what a woman is saying to him. And from the "follow-up" at the end of the movie, they apparently have a good life together, so maybe he just needed to have the right woman talking to him.
But all these observations are so neatly written that you don't feel like you're taking a course in character analysis -- they just make the movie that much more interesting to watch.