A Mighty Wind Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)April 14th, 2003
A MIGHTY WIND
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'It's blowin' peace and freedom. It's blowin' you and me.'
When Irving Steinbloom, a trailblazing folk music producer, passes on his son Jonathan (Bob Balaban, "Best in Show") sets about gathering his father's most famous acts, the Folksmen, the Main St. Singers and the long estranged Mitch and Mickey for a televised reunion concert at New York City's Town Hall. Director/star Christopher Guest ("Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show") and cowriter/star Eugene Levy ("Bringing Down the House") do for folk music what they did for small town theater and big city dog shows in "A Mighty Wind."
Guest, whose Folksmen cofound Alan Barrows sports a bald dome ringed with a bushy gray fringe (if hair is considered under the Academy's makeup rules, "A Mighty Wind" should be a strong nominee consideration), once again gathers his improvisational troupe to affectionately parody a subject. While "A Mighty Wind" is more even than Guest's "Best in Show," its humor is of a gentler variety.
We first meet the still performing Folksmen, a Kingston Trio-like bunch who also include Guest's former Spinal Tap colleagues, the brilliantly earnest Harry Shearer as cofounding bass fiddle player Mark Shubb and the sunnily vacant Michael McKean as guitarist Jerry Palter. These three dish about their first indie record label which produced LPs without the hole and a side business, the Three Wiseman Sex Emporium, sued over an incident with ben wa balls. These guys are determined to prove their uber-folkness over the Main St. Singers, a group they disparage as commercial tripe whenever possible.
The Main St. Singers, an ever evolving New Christy Minstrel type group, are fronted by Terry Bohner (John Michael Higgins, "Best in Show") and his controlling wife Laurie (Jane Lynch, "Best in Show") who sports a toothpaste smile while recounting her past as a porno actress who specialized in things the other girls wouldn't do. She's founded a silly cult of color that works its way into the Main Streeters' bright uniforms. Guest regular Parker Posey is also a member of the overly cheerful Singers who are managed by Fred Willard's Mike LaFontaine, a blonde spiked former child star who cannot stop himself from working his old tag line, "Wha' Happened?," into every interview and conversation. Willard, so inspired as "Best In Show's" announcer, is initially very funny, but runs out of steam in "A Mighty Wind."
The most drama revolves around the reunion of Mitch (Eugene Levy) and Mickey (Catherine O'Hara), a duo whose televised kiss during a song about love and rainbows has become as legendary as their falling out and Mitch's slide into musical retaliation and mental institutions. Mitch, played by Levy in flowing salt and pepper locks and goatee as a cross between Julia Sweeney's Pat character and Tiny Tim caught like a deer in headlights, tentatively falls right back in place with hesitantly sensitive Mickey plucking away at her Autoharp. Levy is comic genius here, a shell shocked self-proclaimed genius whose inner thoughts are a lot simpler than interpreted by his admirers. (Mickey's bland husband Leonard (Jim Piddock, "Best in Show") is made a model train enthusiastic, a nice ideal to give miniature visualization to the subject of so many folk tunes.)
The cast is rounded out by the likes of Ed Begley Jr. as a Swedish folk expert (?!), Michael Hitchcock as the exasperated manager of the Town Hall, Mary Gross as part of the folksy Klapper clan, Larry Miller as a talking head subject historian, and, most priceless of all in a tiny role, Jennifer Coolidge ("Legally Blonde") as an overripe, airheaded publicist with an accent of unknown origins.
Guest and Levy shape "A Might Wind" like a documentary, moving forward with scenes leading up to the big concert while flashing back via interviews to fill in their faux folk history. The music sounds like the real thing while the lyrics are loonily left of center. The film ends with a Peter, Paul and Mary gag that's more silly than sophisticated, but the players never stray from character and their force of good nature is overpoweringly winning.
B
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