A snappy, exhilarating movie, with a slightly 'down' ending, but which nonetheless entertains, without educating (a staple of American cinema). That's not to say this isn't an excellent film - full credit goes to Hanks for crafting a vehicle in which he stars, that he is not the star of, focusing on the rise and fall of a rock group ensconced in British Invasion-era America.

'Not educating' because this film deals very little in the reality of the business management behind The Wonders' success. Sure, no audience can sit through protagonists sludging through reams of contracts, but I think an audience can stomach details on the industry process of promoting an artist, because we see The Wonders single rising the Billboard charts, but no one ever mentions how it does this. Hanks puts in clues, but the dots are not joined - which might be construed as treating an audience as "intelligent" - whoa!, let's not go overboard...

The band guys are perceived to be "well-off" financially by movie's end, but a debut artist selling one single - even to Number One - cannot possibly recoup any of the money that the record label advanced to duplicate, promote and distribute the single nationally. As most veteran artists will attest, they had to wait for their fourth or fifth album (not single) to put them in the black fiscally. And The Wonders ultimately reneged on their contract, which meant that any advances assigned as living expenses on tour would suddenly dry up. It's an intimidating, debilitating legal situation that ensues - but the film sidestepped this issue. Rightly so.

Also, The Wonders' first manager, Phil, in turning them over to Hanks' label, portrays a simplistic, 'noble' approach to what is, in real life, a financial coup for any independent manager. In trying to convince the drummer to sign with Hanks, Phil says, "My bird-doggin' is done - Play Tone's gonna take care of ya", failing to mention that Hanks must have made him a monetary offer he couldn't refuse, to buy out The Wonders' contract. When Hanks then mentions, "Well, papers will have to be signed and you'll have to get me the master tapes", suddenly Reality is served - you could almost see the horns growing out of Hanks' forehead.

Hanks doesn't serve up too much of this meat, and by concentrating on the end-result of all the bureaucracy and hard work - the gigs - we are given a skewed view of this "job". Seems like it's all just "fun", but there are as many rockers who attest that they "hate their job", as there are desk-jockeys nine-to-fiving. When it's your primary income, it's your Job - simple. And any job done well will elicit fun. Any job where you cannot cope, becomes not fun.

The crowning glory of this movie is undoubtedly its synchronized soundtrack. Very few movies (including monumental, award-winning productions like Amadeus or Immortal Beloved) pay this much attention to ensuring that the musician's manipulations on screen match the audio soundtrack, except maybe This Is Spinal Tap. (Of course, movies about real musical artists don't enter this assessment: Woodstock, Gimme Shelter, The Song Remains The Same, etc. - although the Zep movie has its mighty share of non-sync passages.)

When the Eddie & The Cruisers movies surged into cinemas in the 80s, I was humiliated at the lack of savvy the film-makers exhibited in their portrayal of the rock and roll milieu. A major musical flaw was the set-and-forget production value for all the songs, making them sound exactly the same, as if they were all recorded in one place at one time, with one overall mix - which is what was actually done, of course - but to bring some credibility to the movie, the producers should have assessed the circumstances for each scene and mixed the music accordingly – which is what Hanks and his audio personnel intuitively did for this movie.

Every single time The Wonders perform their hit, the sound is mixed to reflect the type of stadium, bar or studio they are in; every single onscreen frame of the actors-playing-musicians is synched – Hanks specifically made his principals take instrument lessons before filming began – down to every single beat of drum-fill on screen being accounted for, down to the guitarists changing to correct chords in correct positions in sync with the audio! If Hanks was brave enough to cast Liv Tyler (a daughter of Rock Royalty), he must have had heady confidence in his team of editors and sound engineers, for to fail at putting across the "musicality" of this movie (with Steven's progeny willing to be involved in it) would not allow Hanks to show his face in public ever again.

Of course there are minute flaws, but none worth mentioning here. There are too many trinkets to keep one sated: the drummer's fastidious father, the singer's fascination with punning the band's name (spelled initially as "One-Ders" and subsequently mispronounced "Oh-NEE-ders" continuously), the well-drawn characters in the band (the "talented one", "smart one", "quiet one", "zany one"), cameos from Peter Scolari (Hanks' old Bosom Buddy), Rita Wilson, Alex Rocco (Moe Green in The Godfather), Kevin Pollak; the subtle romance between Scott and Tyler, who are not actually an item until the last few frames of film.

...and you'll never be able to get that damn song out of your head!


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