Held my hand, holds my heart

Rating: Null/10 (25 February 2002)

That Thing You Do! is the ultimate feelgood film, with myriad happy moments, great humour and not too much nasty philosophy! Tom Everett Scott is immensely likeable, Liv Tyler does well in a role that's not too difficult for her to manage, and the others, whose names I forget, were good as well. The songs are great -I've got the soundtrack, and 'Hold my hand, hold my heart' is one of my favourite songs as well as providing a gorgeous moment on screen. After watching this I was more pleased with Tom Hanks than I have been before or since, and although his more recent dictatorial series 'Band of Brothers' wasn't my favourite (what I saw of it), That Thing You Do! is a joyous milkshake of a film which he can be proud of. It's pretty clean, which is nice for a change, and did anyone else recognise Guy's father as someone you've met before? Actually his part and all the other small parts, like Del Paxton and Diane Dane, were what carried the film. The way Hanks created a whole time-capsule of famous songs that didn't really exist was great.
Watch it sometime to cheer yourself up, and if you don't like the title song the first time it plays, you will by the end!