A Spoof That Manages Sublety and Emotion

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2008)

I had no previous knowledge of this movie so came to it with no expectations only that I normally like John C Rielly, and in the end I was pleasantly surprised. This being a spoof of the story of musician's life's such as the biopic's 'Walk the Line' and 'Ray'. The film rattles along at a good pace a we trace the life and career of the title character from his unfortunate childhood through to his rock and roll break through and his long musical career that follows. This is all done well with Reilly giving the title character a sense of child like wonder well in to his adult years. The spoof is handled well and with an admirable sense of subtlety that the makers of other American spoofs would do well to notice (and I suppose you would expect some screen craft to have passed down if you are the director from the Kasdan family). The supporting cast do well given the limited scope of their roles and Jenna Fischer does well here breaking out from her role in the superb 'The Office: An American Work Place'. The film comes to a pleasing ending which manages to be much more emotional that it has any right to do and on my part at least deserves at least one other viewing.