A Mighty Wind

This Is Spinal Tap is a funny film, but I don't think it is one of the comedy greats that is acclaimed to be. This might be to do with the fact that I don't like heavy metal, I'm not sure. There is great stuff in there, but it's not a film that I can go back to, again and again, and laugh along with it. However, I have enjoyed the subsequent films done in the same style by the same team. Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show, directed, co-written (if that is the correct description: the overall story is nailed down, the point of scenes is extensively described, and all the characters have exhaustive histories, but there is no dialogue whatsoever, leaving the actors to improvise all of it during filming) and starring Christopher Guest have been very funny films, and the troop of actors that come together for these films are all marvellous. A Mighty Wind is no exception to this.

A Mighty Wind follows, in documentary style, the reunion of some well-known folk acts from the '60s, as they get together for a one-off concert in tribute to the recently departed head of the recording company they all worked for. The camera follows them through the build-up for the event, giving us the history of the groups as well as the people involved. The attention to detail is astounding, and the reality of the groups portrayed makes the comedy that comes from it that much more real. I read recently that the three main leads (Guest, McKean and Shearing) met Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant of The Office, and how they were both saying to each other how wonderful their stuff was and how the influence is there but that The Office had taken it further. This is very true, as the style is the same, and the sense of character and comedy from that taps the same vain of 'real' people in 'real' situations. The fullness of the people you get to know in both, and the cringe-factor of their dialogue and ideas is very similar.

It's hard to pick out anyone in the cast, as they are all uniformly excellent. Eugene Levy, co-writer and know more widely-known as Jim's Dad in the American Pie series, has to disguise himself with a silly wig and bizarre accent to allow sufficient comedy distance to allow his character room to breathe, but is still very funny. Guest, McKean and Shearing are great as The Folksmen, sharing a bond in the film that must exist from since the days of making Spinal Tap, and their song, Joe's Place, still won't get out of my head. Fred Willard, who was hilarious, in an Alan Partridge sort of way as the commentator at the dog show in Best In Show, again is hysterical as the surreal manager of The New Main Street Singers, as a man who had a hit show in the '60s, and is still doing the catchphrases from it, "Wha' Happened?" being the funniest (although you will only find it funny if you see the film).

A Mighty Wind is funny, but not at the expense of just getting jokes out, and allows room for development of the story, and poignant interaction of the characters, particularly Mitch (Levy) and Mickey, played by Catherine O'Hara, at the end of the concert. Immensely enjoyable, I eagerly await the next collaboration.

Rating: DAVE