A Mighty Windup

I don't think I could conceive of any better remedy for my iratedispleasure after seeing TM:R than to go see A Mighty Wind, the latestcreation from Christopher Guest and his usual suspects. A Mighty Windfollows the pattern traceable back to This Is Spinal Tap, and,while it isn't exactly fresh, it is masterfully executed here. Perhapsits because this story has more of an effect on its characters, andseems more like a fleshed-out movie than a drawn-out comedy sketch, butI found Wind moving me, both in terms of laughter and realemotion, more than previous Guest movies.

A Mighty Wind traces the story of a folk music producer (JonathanSteinbloom, played by Bob Balaban) who,upon the death of his father — who had been a big player in the folkscene at its peak — decides to hold a tribute concert and bringtogether some of the label's biggest acts. Due to scheduling issues,everything must be brought together in two weeks' time.

What follows is a study of three different folk groups, and thepersonalities in them, who almost universally seem to think that they arevery normal, when in reality they are anything but. The groupsthemselves are a good combination of the varioustropes of the genre: The New Main Street Singers are a reincarnationof the original nine-member Main Street Singers who are the most poppyand commercial of the bunch — and looked on with scorn by TheFolksmen, a trio who consider themselves to be much more true to theirfolk roots. Rounding out the three is the duet of Mitch and Mickey, acouple whose high point was a sickly sweet love ballad very reminiscentof "I Got You, Babe". All the groups get roughly equal time, whichdoes mean that The New Main Street Singers, due to their sheer number, getless individual screen time; this isn't too much of a loss, though,because they are easily the least interesting group.

Article Author: Robert Jones

Visit Robert Jones's author page — Robert Jones's Blog