A Mighty Wind (rewatch)
Posted by martinteller on February 27, 2012
The third (or fourth depending on whether or not you count Spinal Tap) film by Christopher Guest and his company shows serious signs of weakening. No one seems terribly into it. There are some pretty good laughs, but they’re few and far between. The rest of the time it feels like the troupe is searching for the jokes… or worse, the jokes are rather cheap. Eugene Levy’s silly voice (and Jennifer Coolidge’s, but she makes it work better), Jane Lynch’s story of her porn background, Ed Begley Jr. as the Swede who peppers his speech with scraps of Yiddish, the dumb reveal at the end. Heck, even the title is a fart joke. Unsurprisingly, Fred Willard is consistently amusing, but the others struggle to find the funny.
As for the music, it’s basically 1 out of 3 with two near misses. The New Main Street Singers and The Folksmen are mild parodies of the kind of hokey stuff on the “Midnight Special” radio show. The songs are decent but the gags aren’t that strong. But Mitch & Mickey… well, there’s really no funny there at all, but goddamn, I would totally buy a Mitch & Mickey album. “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” is a genuinely gorgeous tune, and the scene where they finally perform it in full makes the whole film worthwhile. Certainly the sweetest moment in any Guest film.
I really hate to keep downgrading my scores. Maybe I’m getting harsher these days or something. But the movie simply didn’t tickle my funny bone that much this time around. A few great moments aside (I really like the scene where Bob Balaban harangues Michael Hitchcock about the stage dressing) it’s kind of a dud. Rating: Fair
