Guest once again gets the most of out of his talented troupe of actors, most of whom have appeared in his other directorial efforts. Bob Balaban plays Jonathan Steinbloom, the son of Irving Steinbloom, a recently-deceased musicians' manager who was one of the movers and shakers of the Greenwich Village folk music scene. Jonathan decides to honor his dad with a Town Hall performance that gathers together his stable of folk legends, never mind that many of the musicians haven't played together, or even seen each other, in years. The bulk of the picture (not all of which is shot in documentary style; Guest cheats a lot) consists of the groups rehearsing, sitting down for interviews, and getting reacquainted with one another. Then it closes with the televised concert.
In a bizarre way, A Mighty Wind is a "Spinal Tap" reunion. Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, who comprise that fictional heavy metal group, also play The Folksmen, a laid-back, Kingston Trio-like collective that reminisces fondly throughout the movie. (Actually, in "real" life, The Folksmen once opened for Spinal Tap during a live performance, which enabled the group members to be roundly booed by unsuspecting metal-heads before changing their clothes and guitars and re-appearing to a huge ovation.) The Folksmen's self-consciously innocent tunes are so spot-on their cutesy albums have titles like Hitchin' and Pickin' - they could easily pass for the real thing.
Fred Willard is on hand for his usual brilliant turn as a loud-mouthed nincompoop, but A Mighty Wind is stolen by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, who deliver precisely-calibrated performances as the popular duo Mitch and Mickey, two ex-lovers whose years in the spotlight, and in each other's hearts, are long behind them.
Though Mitch is hailed by one and all as a genius, the intervening years have not been kind. He's now a burned-out, slow-talking shell of his former self who nevertheless still sees the world through a gloriously romantic prism. When Mitch and Mickey finally appear on the TV broadcast, Levy and O'Hara share a tender moment that truly puts a lump in your throat. Levy brings startling depth to a broadly-conceived role that could have easily consisted of a single, oft-repeated joke. This is an inspired comic performance, one that should have made more waves than it did when the movie was in the theaters.
Warner Bros. includes a pile of extras on this appealing disc. The image is presented in Widescreen anamorphic format, and the music is cleanly mixed. Along with the requisite trailer, you get almost 30 minutes worth of deleted scenes, several of which are as funny as anything that made the final cut (a surreal discussion of the difference between North and South Dakota is a particular highlight.) There's also an amusing commentary by Guest and co-writer Levy, but the real draw is the entire Town Hall concert, presented on video, as it would be telecast on your local PBS station. All the actors perform their songs with the proper amount of over-zealous chutzpa, and you can even listen to Guest and Levy's comments while they do it.
A Mighty Wind may not rival This is Spinal Tap as the ultimate mockumentary, but this DVD reveals it to be a lovingly crafted valentine to a bygone moment in pop cultural history. It makes for a sweetly enjoyable viewing experience.
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by Paul Tatara
