Tom Hanks makes his feature film directorial debut in this rather light-hearted and enjoyable comedy-drama about a young rock-and-roll band in 1964. Now, personally, I wasn’t expecting to like this film very much. The trailers, which I’d seen umpteen thousand times on video and theater screens, didn’t exactly paint the picture of how enjoyable and downright funny this movie is.
In Erie, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1964, a group of Beatles wannabes called The Oneders (as in The Wonders, not The O-need-ers) play a talent contest at Mercyhurst College. They’re all set to play their original ballad called “That Thing You Do” when the drummer (Tom Everett Scott) decides to speed up the tempo and make it a peppy song. They get a huge reaction from the crowd and win the contest, and the attention of a local restaurant owner who books them to play at his eatery.
After gaining a small, dedicated following, the band make a record of the song and sell it on their own. When a man offers them a guarantee that he can make the song a hit and get them a record deal, their success story begins.
The band’s songs are written by Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech), a pouty, overly dramatic individual, who feels the band isn’t being taken seriously enough. His girlfriend, Fay (Liv Tyler), comes along for the band’s ride to stardom as their costume specialist and encourages Jimmy to sing his songs, which she feels are for her. The rest of the band chides Jimmy for worrying too much and not enjoying the ride while they have their own fame-induced problems. (No, there are no drug overdoses or urinating in public incidents here. This is 1964, one band member falls for a Playboy playmate and another joins the Marines.)
Hanks’ script and direction, as well as his performance as the band’s manager and record executive, Mr. White, gives the film a gleeful quality that is infectious. You actually don’t mind hearing this song over and over again, because that’s one of the points the movie is making: that song is all this band really has going for them.
The movie doesn’t break any new ground, nor would one expect it to. It’s simply a story of a band during a time in music history when things were more innocent than they are today. The characters aren’t exactly well-developed and the story is as predictable as one could possibly expect. But, That Thing You Do! is such a well-put-together little film that it’s possible to overlook such flaws.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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