January 2004

"A Mighty Wind"? More like "Mailed it in"!
Review This!

From the mouths of friends and strangers I heard nothing but accolades for the movie "A Mighty Wind." By the volume of praise, I believed the movie was worth watching, but it was not. In fact, it was almost entirely unfunny. Maybe they were high on themselves from the success of prior films, "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman." Maybe that's why the actors/directors/producers seemed to have 'mailed it in.'

"Hate" is a strong word, and "sucked" is used all too often on this web page, so I feel uneasy using either word to describe the film. Honestly, I laughed three times. Three times! This was supposed to be a comedy - a tour de force! The only amusing aspect/character was Fred Willard ("Wha happen?") He killed me. Everyone and everything else left me cold.

Like the other Guest/Shearer/McKean films, "A Mighty Wind" is a mocumentary. This one is about a fictional reunion of early 1960's folk musicians. The concept is not unfunny. Take a look at any LP jacket form that era (pre-Dylan), and you'll chuckle. Some can bring me to tears. Somehow, no one in the film could translate that onto the screen.

Played in the famous ad-lib style, the characters never developed any dignity or unmerited pride to make their pathetic existence hilarious, with the exception of Fred Willard's character. He killed me. That character lived in a dream world, and was oblivious to the fact that he was not, nor ever was, funny. The other characters were actually pathetic. I did not care if they achieved success, or failed gloriously, because I never got the impression that either they, not the world, thought much of them.

"Spinal Tap" did a much better job parodying obliviously pathetic people. "A Mighty Wind" did not, although I bet they thought they had. It's not that I wanted the movie to be a folk version of 'Tap', all I wanted was to be entertained. It couldn't even do that.