THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 61 lines
HALFWAY through ``That Thing You Do!,'' Tom Hanks' directorial debut, you may well ask yourself why you're enjoying it so much. After all, the plot is so thin that it would barely sustain the doo-wop beat, and nothing new happens that hasn't been well recorded since those B-budget, black-and-white flicks made back when Alan Freed, rock's first DJ, used them to thwart stuffy parents who thought the world was going to the devil.
The difference, of course, is that it is now woeful, old, deficit-increasing 1996 and, boy, do we need this kind of fun.
``That Thing You Do!,'' a fable of four lads from small-town nowhere who climb the Billboard charts, is so filled with buoyant energy that it doesn't need anything more than its own driving force. Just catch the beat and flow along with it.
Hanks, who wrote and directed the film, has filled it with the same brand of sweetness and trustworthy values that has become his trademark as an actor. The boys in The Wonders, the fast-rising fictional group, wear matching blazers and ties. They never have dingy dressing rooms. They never have to face outside traumas like Vietnam. As they rise to fame, they never give in to drugs or sex.
The 1964 setting allows all this sunshine to give us a tan, not a burn. The film lacks the edge, or the meanness, of a satire like ``This is Spinal Tap'' and goes, rather, for the feel-good nostalgia of an ``American Graffiti.''
The central character, and just about the only real character, is Guy Patterson, played with a winning grin by Hanks look-alike Tom Everett Scott. He works in his tyrannical father's appliance store in Erie, Pa., but is all too anxious to give it up when the local rock group needs a drummer. They make a hit record, tour the State Fair circuit and get mobbed by screaming girls.
The other characters are largely undeveloped but fill a need of touching the necessary bases. Johnathon Schaech is the handsome one who sees himself as serious songwriter. His girl, Faye, is played by the effervescent Liv Tyler who has evolved as the movies' freshest hope movie-star-type beauty. She's very ordinary here, which is all she's asked to be.
Steve Zahn, as the lead guitarist, has most of the comic assignments. Ethan Embry, who was the child co-star of Ed O'Neill in ``Dutch,'' is the puppyish, goofy one who wants only to go to California to see Disneyland. We would like to have seen more of his character. Charlize Theron, destined to be the new blonde in movies via her current role in ``2 Days in the Valley,'' has a rather thankless bit as the snooty hometown girl who is not impressed with the boys' stardom.
Hanks himself takes the role of the band's pushy manager, Mr. White. For a few moments, it looks as if he might even evolve as something of a villain, but we should have known better. Everyone, including Mr. White, means well.
The title tune is repeated so often that it will be just about impossible not to be able to hum it by the time you leave the theater.
``That Thing You Do!'' laughs at the very cliches it presents and does it with good humor and likable playfulness. It suggests that movies, like eras, can be just mindless fun, and nothing else. Enjoy! ILLUSTRATION: Photo by 20TH CENTURY FOX
Steve Zahn, left, Johnathon Schaech, Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry and Tom
Everett Scott, top, in ``That Thing You Do!'' by CNB