Chris isaak that thing you do8/10/2023 ![]() ![]() Even Guy has his moments–his weakness is good jazz music. They’re more likely to be lured away by a spur-of-the-moment trip to Vegas with a Playboy Blondie or a jaunt to Disneyland with some Marines on leave. No, the Wonders are much too innocent for that. Again, though, nothing gets too raunchy or intense. That Thing You Do! does a lot of wink-winking at the biopic formula and celeb culture. There’s nowhere to go but up…or is there? The group stays at the Ambassador Hotel while they do radio spots and appear in a Rick and Anita surfing movie. Then they find out they’re in the Billboard Top Ten and it’s off for California. And they credit everything that happens to Guy, who always answers, “I led you here, sir, for I am Spartacus.” And everyone wants to hear “That Thing You Do!” Their record climbs the charts and The Wonders are loving it. Their show goes from a blink-and-miss-it single song performance to playing full sets to being driven out of venues in police cars while fans try to pile on top. The guys are over the moon about their new tour and gush like fanboys when the different stars walk by. From now on, the group is called The Wonders. White tosses a pair of shiny Foster Grants. The guys have to wear nice suits because they’re nice boys. Faye can only go on tour if she’s their costume mistress. Only first he’s going to make a few changes. White (Tom Hanks) wants to buy out their contract and take the band on tour with the prestigious Play-Tone Galaxy. He gets their song on the radio, and the whole band comes screaming one by one into the appliance store, where they crank every hi-fi in the place. Phil (Chris Ellis), who drives a camper, asks to be their manager. ![]() Every Friday night Villapiano’s is packed, and they make a record with Guy’s Uncle Bob (Chris Isaak). Things start speeding up for the Oneders. The Oneders not only win the talent show, but score a weekly paying gig at Villapiano’s, an Italian restaurant out by the airport. ![]() On the spur of the moment, Guy taps out an uptempo cue, giving the Oneders’ dour tune some much-needed perk, and Jimmy can’t stop him because crowd is grooving. She just wants to get this thing over with so she and Guy can go to dinner and a movie. Guy’s bored girlfriend, Tina (Charlize Theron) looks around at the folk groups and mariachi bands with obvious disdain. Jimmy’s girlfriend, Faye (Liv Tyler) hits on calling the group The Wonders, but spelled “Oneders.” Now they need a name, and since homophones are the rage (like The Beatles), they want something clever. Guy picks up the song right off the bat, so the band is all set. He and Lenny (Steve Zahn) wrote a somber new ballad, “That Thing You Do!” and want to impress the crowd. They’re playing at the Mercyhurst College talent show and the lead singer, Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech) is taking it all very seriously. Our hero’s predictable existence gets a little shakeup when his friends ask him to sit in for Chad (Giovanni Ribisi), a guy in their band who leapfrogs over a parking meter and breaks his arm. He drives his dad crazy because he always forgets to turn the sign off when the store closes. Guy isn’t a dabbler, either–he’s a seriously impressive performer. What he likes best is to go down to the store’s basement, put on a Del Paxton record, and pound away on the drums. Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) lives in Erie, Pennsylvania and works at his family’s appliance store. What it does have is an insider’s view of Hollywood and the music business with a heavy dash of idealism. There’s barely any profanity in it and definitely no, ahem, messing around. There are no violent freak-outs or drug binges. It did what Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Storywould do eleven years later, only in a much, much more genteel way, thank you. Written, partially composed, directed by, and starring Tom Hanks, That Thing You Do! is a send-up of musical biopics. ![]() That, and the recent untimely death of Adam Schlesinger, writer of the title song, make the timing of this review slightly more fortuitous. I’ve touched on 1996’s That Thing You Do! before, and including it in our Five Days At the Fair fest is a no-brainer. ![]()
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