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Taking Woodstock (15)
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Dir. Ang Lee, US, 2009, 120 mins,
Cast: Henry Goodman, Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton
Review by Carol Allen
Ang Lee is a director who is up for tackling any genre of film making. This one is a coming of age movie with a nostalgic air, being the behind the scenes story of the young man who made possible the Woodstock music festival of 1969.
Elliot (Martin) has been forced to leave his life as an interior designer in New York to return to his parents' run down motel in a Catskills resort and help them prevent it from being taken over by the bank. When Elliot hears that a proposed music festival has lost its permit from a nearby town, he tracks down the festival's promoter (Jonathan Groff), offers the motel's services to the festival team to drum up some much needed business and persuades his neighbours to host the event, most particularly diary farmer Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), who's prepared to let his field to the promoters - for a good price. They don't of course know what they've let themselves in for, until half a million young people start making their way there for "3 Days of Peace and Music".
This is a very likeable film which recreates the feel of 1969 well. It would be misrepresenting it to say this is about the Woodstock phenomenon as such though. That all happens in the background and like Elliot we don't get to see or hear much of the festival itself. It is the collection of well drawn and engaging characters, which is the focus of the film. Martin as the dutiful and somewhat staid Elliot, who comes right out of his closet, is in some ways like a gay version of Benjamin from The Graduate . The journey of his character from dutiful son to finally becoming himself via an LSD encounter with a hippie couple towards the end of the festival is a comic coming of age. Staunton and Goodman play Sonia and Jake, Elliot's's parents. Jake is initially a quiet and wizened little man, until he too starts to come out of his shell under the influence of the mad atmosphere which develops, while Staunton is terrific as the dominating Jewish mother, who doesn't always change the sheets on the motel beds in the interests of economy. She virtually steals every scene that she's in. Jake's ultimate and very simple explanation of why he's put up with her for forty years - "because I love her" - is very touching. Liv Schreiber is dryly cool as the cross dressing security guard Vilma, who also helps Elliot in his journey of self discovery, while Emile Hirsch as an eccentric, recently returned Vietnam veteran and Groff as promoter Michael, whose "refugee from Hair" appearance and hippy language belies his good business sense, also make a strong impression.
The film's very funny in places, as in a scene where Sonia sends a group of protection racketeers packing and another where the hippy theatre group, who've set up residence in the motel's barn, perform a most peculiar strip tease version of "The Three Sisters". While this is by no means one of Ang Lee's most significant films, it's still a very sweet, lovable and enjoyable movie.
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