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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
Over the years, I’ve discussed some of my all-time favorites, including The Apartment, Vertigo, It Happened One Night, Do the Right Thing, It’s a Wonderful Life and Citizen Kane. These groundbreaking movies are widely accepted as required viewing in a cinematic education, so they don’t necessitate a compelling argument for being called classics.
For this week’s entry, I wanted to try something a little different. I wanted to pick a film that isn’t considered a classic and make a case for why it should be. Inspiration struck over the weekend, when I caught That Thing You Do! on television.
The 1996 musical comedy (written and directed by Tom Hanks at the height of his stardom) is one of those movies – much like The Shawshank Redemption or The Truman Show – that is impossible to tear yourself away from. Whether you catch it from the beginning or jump in halfway through while channel surfing, once it grabs your attention, you know you’re probably going to be glued to the couch until it’s over.
That’s because the characters, and the world they inhabit, are so effortlessly charismatic that you want to spend as much time with them as possible. Hanks is one of the increasingly rare actors who is both universally beloved and appears to be a genuinely decent human being, and he instills that charm and genial nature into almost every role in his film. Even the antagonist isn’t a true villain – he just allows his passion for music to cloud his judgment and turn him into a jerk.
If you haven’t seen That Thing You Do!, you’re missing out on one of the most amiable – and endlessly quotable – movies of the past two decades. Set in the summer of 1964, it tells the story of four Erie, Penn. musicians who become accidental pop stars, chronicling their sudden rise and inevitable fall.
Aspiring jazz drummer Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) is asked by Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) and Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn) to sit in with them for a college talent show after their regular drummer (Giovanni Ribisi) breaks his arm in a hilariously dumb accident. The plan is for them to play one song, a sweet but dull ballad, which Guy nails during their impromptu practice session.
That’s also when Faye (Liv Tyler), Jimmy’s girlfriend, stumbles upon a name for their band: The Oneders, purposely misspelled in a nod to The Beatles. Despite Lenny’s perceptive objection that it looks like “The Oh-nee-ders,” the name sticks and the guys – along with their nameless bass player (Ethan Embry) – embark on their journey to fame after Guy decides to speed up the song’s tempo. The song takes off, quickly catching the attention of a local talent scout (Chris Ellis) and eventually Mr. White (Hanks), a representative of Play-Tone Records.
Over the course of a few weeks, the newly-rechristened The Wonders (“as in, ‘I wonder what happened to The Oh-nee-ders?’” Lenny quips) go from playing pizza joints to appearing in Hollywood movies and performing on national television. However, conflicts and big egos start to strain the band’s relationship, making them question how much longer they’ll be able stay together.
I’ve seen That Thing You Do! at least 20 times (I even taught it in my college English class a couple of years ago) and could probably recite it from memory. But it wasn’t until last weekend’s viewing that I started to realize it might just be a perfect movie. I’m not saying it should be in the running for the greatest of all time, or that we should talk about it in the same revered tone we usually reserve for those films I mentioned several paragraphs ago.
However, after spending a significant amount of time analyzing it (some would say an unhealthy amount of time, if I’m being honest), I can say Hanks doesn’t make a wrong choice in the entire 108-minute running time. The characters are well-developed, the dialogue is smart and funny, and the music is remarkably catchy. (You hear the title song twice in its entirety and snippets of it nine other times, but somehow it never gets old.) The story isn’t original by any stretch of the imagination, nevertheless even the clichéd elements feel authentic.
Hanks isn’t attempting to make a profound statement about the nature of human existence. He sets out to tell a simple, nostalgia-tinged story about the era he grew up in and comment on the fleeting nature of fame in the process. In that respect, he accomplishes his goal and makes it seem effortless (and also beautiful, thanks to Tak Fujimoto’s cinematography and Howard Shore’s music).
Still, a story this sweet-natured rises and falls on the performances, and Hanks proves his years in show business resulted in a keen eye for casting. That’s especially true for the smaller roles filled by outstanding actors (including Oscar-winner Charlize Theron in her big screen debut and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him appearance from future Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston).
Scott, who shares the same first name as his director and looks remarkably like a younger version of him (in fact, Hanks almost didn’t cast him for that reason) possesses a similar everyman quality. His performance might not be as flashy as the others, but it cements Guy as the reliable backbone of the band when fame makes the other characters go a little crazy.
Tyler does some of the best work of her career, Schaech manages to make a difficult character both appealing and entertaining and Embry brings an oddball charm to a small part. But the not-so-secret weapon of the film is Zahn, who gets the funniest lines and the wackiest role. He could’ve just been the comic relief and nothing more, but multiple viewings prove Lenny has shrewd instincts that are undercut by recklessness and immaturity. Zahn walks that tightrope incredibly well.
It’s safe to say that That Thing You Do! won’t be joining Citizen Kane and Vertigo in the pantheon of cinematic greats anytime soon. However, coming off its recent 20th anniversary, time has proved we should at least be talking about it on the same level of movies like Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused and Clueless. It really is that great.
That Thing You Do! is rated PG for some language.
Grade: A+
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