Unless you were there.

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2008)

THAT THING YOU DO
Unless you were there. Unless you were of that age, that time and particularly if you were a male and trying to force your grimy little fingers into a "C" chord on a Harmony acoustic guitar that was semi in tunewell, you will not understand the depth that this movie has. This movie and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" capture something that was so real, so tangible but has slipped so completely away from any succeeding generations grasp that to try and film it's time and moment seems impossible. And yet, Tom Hanks did it. I don't know how he managed to grasp the era and the people so well as I thought he was a little too young for that time period. He nails this every boy's fantasy with wit, wisdom and just a touch of sadness. The cast turns in, a spot on encapsulation of people that will be very familiar to any struggling band member from the period. Tom Hanks himself turns in a solid performance as a man apart of, yet removed from the music itself. Men of his age at that time all actually read the Playboy philosophy espoused by Hugh Hefner and secretly wanted to be as cool as one of the Rat Pack. He did a super job of directing this effort and keeping the frenetic pace. All of this brings us to the music, which for the most part is expertly crafted (and I was surprised to see Hanks wrote some of the music also) to remind us of the era. I enjoyed all the songs for what they are. It is "homage" which is not exactly copying but using the elements to pay tribute to the influences that shaped the music of that era. People who grew up in the 80's or 90's have no conception of what the music was like then. They can hear it, and yes even appreciate it, but they don't understand that it was rarely on TV, it was not the background music for every commercial you heard or saw and radio stations that played it were decidedly looked down upon. It was not woven into the fabric of life like it is now. It was new, it was dangerous and you had to search it out. You had to want it. That's why I so enjoyed this movie. Even with some of it's false steps and it's occasional heavy handedness that would over power the subtleties of real life I found this movie a guilty pleasure that is completely satisfying and an absolute joy to watch.