This August marked the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, and while in the past documentaries have captured the sound and feel of the legendary concert, a sweet but somewhat flat new film attempts to show the current generation how it really came about.
Taking Woodstock is a solid film, directed by Academy Award winner Ang Lee and starring Comedy Central's Demetri Martin. While it sometimes finds itself swimming in too much over-the-top nostalgia and one-too-many character epiphanies, it is a story that will ultimately warm your heart and make you sorry you were born decades too late.
The film, based on a book of the same name, tells the true story of Elliot Tiber (Martin), an interior designer who, after moving back in with his parents to help them run their down-and-out motel, notices a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a music festival it was planning to host. The story follows Elliot as he and the concert producers work together to bring the festival to his town, giving viewers the rarely-told backstory of what happened before thousands of people arrived.
Martin, known more for his stand-up comedy than his acting, plays Elliot with a stoic, detached quality, not the emotional performance one would expect from a lead. His character almost acts like a tour guide of the festival for the viewer. Long shots accented by split screens follow Elliot as he silently walks the muddy fields, showing the viewer different images of the hippie activity and giving the film a documentary feel.
But the real heart of the film is Elliot's parents, a Russian-Jewish immigrant couple played by Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman. Staunton and Goodman are not only convincing, they are laugh-out-loud funny (especially in a scene where they consume some "special" brownies) and tender as they discover their softer sides after being surrounded by youthful hippies.
The film's supporting cast is also fantastic and criminally underused. Emile Hirsch as a whacked-out Vietnam veteran, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a local resident concerned about the hippie invasion and Liev Schreiber as a cross-dressing ex-marine all give stellar performances. Unfortunately, they appear in the film in small doses.
The film has some other slight flaws. Prominently, an overly long acid trip scene takes viewers inside a Volkswagen van and away from the more interesting images going on outside. The scene is only saved by a beautiful shot later of the festival fields rolling like ocean waves, which gives us an idea of what things would seem like through the eyes of someone on drugs.
Secondly, there are absolutely no shots of the stage or the concert's famous musicians. This problem could have been solved with an awesome Woodstock-inspired soundtrack, but the songs used were shockingly forgettable for an event with music so essential.
While not mesmerizing, Taking Woodstock is good, groovy fun. If you don't leave the theater feeling changed, you'll at least have had a stress-free time. And isn't that what Woodstock was all about?
Grade: B+
