That Thing You Do!

People still go crazy over the Beatles.  Just about anything with their name on it gets people interested and excited.  Now I like the group just fine but I’m not a Beatlemaniac or anything.  I find their story to be just as interesting or maybe even more interesting than their music (but that’s just my opinion don’t take it personally).  I’ve wondered over the years why there hasn’t been a biopic on the Fab Four especially since that seemed to be a hot thing a little while back with movies like Walk the Line and Ray.  There have been all of these movies that either focus on a very specific part of their story like Backbeat or Nowhere Boy and ones that have a whole lot of Beatles in them but aren’t really about the group like Across the Universe and I Wanna Hold Your Hand (that was Robert Zemeckis’ first feature by the way and he’s coming out with a new version of Yellow Submarine).  But there hasn’t been a big studio production done and if we haven’t seen one yet then we probably won’t for a while.  My guess is they’re waiting until they’re all dead.  But you know, aside from I Wanna Hold Your Hand I think That Thing You Do! is the best Beatles tribute that I’ve seen.

And just to elaborate for a moment on why I brought up I Wanna Hold Your Hand, it’s because it has the same type of feeling that Dazed and Confused and Superbad has.  Even though these movies take place all in one day or one night you feel like you’ve been somewhere and a lot of shit has happened.  The characters evolve and learn something about themselves and about the world.  The journey was just as important as the destination.  And this movie was done in a pretty smart way.  You see they don’t actually show the actors faces playing the Beatles.  I know that sounds weird but trust me it works.  The movie’s climax is that a group of friends get to watch the band perform on the Ed Sullivan show live and Zemeckis uses distance and focus very cleverly to achieve this moment.  We can see the four members performing on the stage far away in the background but in the same shot in the foreground we also see a TV monitor with the real Beatles footage from that night.  The actors synced up their movements to match the actual performance without showing their faces.  What I just described might sound really stupid but it’s convincing.  Zemeckis found a workaround that had me thinking, “oh, that actually works.  That’s pretty smart Bob.”  So if you like movies like Superbad and/or the Beatles then this is a good time.

But anyway getting back to That Thing You Do!, since Tom Hanks is coming out with only his second feature that he’s directed I thought it would be interesting to go back and look at his first.  That Thing You Do! is about a fictional rock band in 1964 that has a number one hit over night.  But after only being together for a couple of months and at the height of their success they break up.

There are a lot of different elements that weave the Beatles-like story and the one hit wonder story together so let’s take them one by one.  Let’s start with the general overall story of the band.  There are four members with an original line up of Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech (8MM 2, Road House 2: Last Call)), Lenny (Steve Zahn (Joy Ride, Saving Silverman)), Chad (Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan, Gone in Sixty Seconds)) and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry (Dutch, Vegas Vacation)).  Jimmy is the lead singer and guitar player, Lenny plays guitar and sings backup, Chad is the drummer and T.B. plays bass (I’ll get into his goofy name a little later).  We never actually see them play together with this lineup.  Chad breaks his arm in the beginning of the film causing the rest of the group to ask Guy (Tom Everett Scott (An American Werewolf in Paris, Boiler Room, Grace Under Fire)) to replace him.  Now of course this is reminiscent of Pete Best being replaced by Ringo Starr.  They also christen themselves the Oneders (pronounced One-ders).  Again this is similar to how the Beatles re-spelled the word beetle.

They get together and learn the song that Jimmy wrote (or Jimmy and Lenny wrote depending who you ask).  It’s a slow ballad type song called “That Thing You Do” and they want to perform it at a local talent show.  When they do play it at the show Guy starts the song off too fast and the rest of the band is forced to keep up with him.  They sound kinda sloppy because they were caught off guard but the audience loves it anyway and they get offered a standing gig at a small restaurant/bar.  I think this is supposed to be the equivalent of the Beatles’ Hamburg days.

The Oneders make a recording of “That Thing You Do” and it gets in the hands of a guy that offers to be their manager.  They hire him and he gets them on the radio.  Mr. White (Hanks) then takes over as manager and they shoot to superstardom.  “That Thing You Do” becomes one of the fastest rising singles in history.  They tour a bit and even get to be in a Hollywood movie.  The group is about to record some more songs while out in California but break up before that happens.

Ok, so you have four guys with four distinct personalities.  Jimmy is sorta like John Lennon but only one side of him, the one that’s arrogant and thinks he’s the greatest songwriter who ever lived.  T.B. is more like George Harrison and stays quiet and in the background while playing his cool bass parts.  I guess Guy is a bit like Ringo in that he’s kinda goofy but he’s definitely a good solid drummer.  And his trademark is sunglasses instead of rings (?).  I think Lenny is supposed to be the Paul McCartney of this group.  He’s incredibly silly and kind of obnoxious but not egotistical like Jimmy.  They present him as being 50/50 with Jimmy in terms of the music like Paul and John were in the early days.  The way Lenny acts is sorta like how the Beatles did in the early years when all they did was goof around and crack jokes. 

The thing is that these four guys aren’t really good friends.  They act more like work colleagues or business partners than buddies in a band.  I think this accurately portrays what the dynamics between each of the Beatles were.  The only two that were even remotely close were John and Paul but that didn’t last past a couple of years.  Paul felt some sort of a connection with all of the guys like I read once that he seemed psychically linked with them.  If any of them Guy seems to be the one that might feel this way, that they were meant to be together to make music.  I mean Jimmy doesn’t seem to like anybody except this one singer that he idolizes later in the movie and the rest of the guys don’t mind each other but if they weren’t in this hugely successful band together they wouldn’t be hanging out.

As for one more Beatles reference, at the end of the movie they appear on an Ed Sullivan like variety show.  While the group is performing their song there are close-ups of each member and when they get to Jimmy they say that he’s engaged.  They did something similar when they showed John Lennon on TV telling us that he’s married.

Now onto the one hit wonder stuff.  Well the first and most obvious thing is that these guys had only one hit and it was extremely popular.  Another obvious thing is the name of the band, The Wonders.  Lenny even asks at one point when Mr. White wants to change the spelling of the name from the Oneders to the Wonders, “as in I wonder what happened to the Oneders?”  Nice foreshadowing.   They also break up before having another hit which is not necessarily something associated with one hit wonders but when those bands fall off of the radar so quickly I think most people don’t follow up on them so it might as well be as if they had broken up.  There’s also T.B. Player.  There always seems to be a guy in a band that no one can remember the name of.  He stays so much in the background that you forget about him.  T.B. is that guy in the Wonders.  In fact we never learn his name.  T.B. stands for “the bass” as in “the bass player”.  Again, this isn’t something that is only attributed to one hit wonders but it was a nice touch.

As for the title song itself, it was written by the bassist for The Fountains of Wayne.  They held a contest and this was the winner.  And it’s a good example of mid sixties pop.  Holding a contest to find the right song was a very smart way to go instead of commissioning someone to do it (which I think is what they originally did).  It certainly paid off and gave the best outcome.  Oh and I hope you enjoy the song at least a little bit ‘cause they play the hell out of it in this movie.  I think we hear it in full three or four times and partially another four or five.  Whether this was on purpose or not it gives a hint as to what it might be like to have a hit song and have to play it and hear it so many times that you get fed up with the thing.  Thankfully it doesn’t get to that point in the movie but it definitely pushes it. 

However the scene where everyone in the band hears “That Thing You Do” on the radio for the first time is, pardon the term, wonderfully constructed.  You start out hearing it on a little earbud worn by Jimmy’s girlfriend, Liv Tyler (Armageddon, The Lord of the Rings).  She then runs into T.B so he tunes into it on his earbud and the song gets a little louder but still sounds very tinny ‘cause those things don’t have any bottom end to them.  They run into the appliance store where Guy works and he tunes into the song using one of the radios on display.  T.B. puts the song on a giant stereo and the bass finally kicks in (huh, the bass gets turned on by the bass player, never noticed that) just in time for the bridge which is where Guy switches to the floor tom so there’s even more bottom end in that part.  Jimmy and Lenny pull up and run into the store.  How they knew that everyone was at the appliance store is anyone’s guess but whatever.  They all jump around hugging each other and screaming.  It was a great idea to have the song build and eventually reach a climax instead of just hearing it straight through because we’ve already done that in the movie.  To have it get louder and louder is sort of like the song picking up steam and saying, “look out ‘cause I’m gonna blow up real big real soon.”  And it was genius to hold off on the low end so that it adds extra punch when they finally do give it to us.  Hanks does a really good job showing off the thrill and feeling of ecstasy that must be felt when you hear your song on the radio for the first time.

And the rest of the movie is done just as well.  This film is told from the view of Guy and Hanks translates his feelings well at each stage of the band.  It’s awkward at first because you don’t really know these guys that well, then there’s excitement because people like the song and the band.  Then the exhilaration of touring and being picked up by a major label and having your song climb the charts.  You get more used to being famous and doing things like having a bit part in a movie or appearing on TV.  And finally heartbreak because the band broke up and it wasn’t because of anything you did and there really wasn’t anything that you could do to prevent it.  This movie is the story of a lot of real band’s careers in a nutshell. 

It’s also great to see these actors actually playing their instruments.  I mean they’re lip syncing to a backing track on film but they really learned how to play their instruments and even had band rehearsals before shooting the movie.  It’s really distracting when it’s obvious the actor has no idea how to play a guitar or drums or whatever.  Like in La Bamba Lou Diamond Phillips looks so awkward and clunky when playing guitar.  So I give credit to films like this and Ray that have actors that actually know their instrument.  But I do have to bring up that the ultimate is The Buddy Holly Story.  I don’t think any other movie has the actors doing the songs for real on camera.  When you see Gary Busey (Surviving the Game), Charles Martin Smith (The Untouchables) and Don Stroud (The Amityville Horror (1979)) playing those songs, they’re actually doing it live.  A lot of that movie might have been total made up bullshit but to perform for real is very impressive.

That Thing You Do! not only nods heavily at the Beatles but it also one ups the subject material by covering one hit wonders at the same time.  I don’t think Hanks takes the point of view of “what if the Beatles were a one hit wonder” but rather uses them as a template because they’re story is so well known (and it’s just a good story to boot).  There are some other Beatles references that I didn’t mention like that both groups came from small towns and Mr. White’s full name is Andy White which is also the name of the drummer that played on “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You”, but I think I got my point across with that stuff.  The whole film is very well thought out.  This is Hanks’ baby.  He wrote it, directed it, stars in it and even helped to write some of the songs.  Everything comes off very nicely and has a lot of charm.  You’re happy for the Wonders when they start to become famous and you feel sad for them when they break up.  I will say that if you’re not a fan of early or mid sixties music then this film will be very hard to watch.  Even if you only like late sixties hard rock or psychedelic music this might not be for you.  This movie is an ode to a very specific period of pop and an exceedingly good one at that.  It says, “thank you early rock bands, crooners, girl groups, divas and everyone else that made this wonderful music.  This is for you.”