Review: ‘Taking Woodstock’

I would love to tell you that Ang Lee’s new film made a big impression on me as a viewer, taking me back to Woodstock itself and giving me an intimate, insider’s look into a significant American cultural event that I was unfortunately not yet born to experience for myself but, alas, I cannot. What I can tell you is that TAKING WOODSTOCK is a light-hearted and fun dramedy that offers a small slice, or glimpse perhaps, into a bit of the essence of Woodstock, or at least of what my imagination and collected exposure to film and music of the event can muster.

TAKING WOODSTOCK marks director Ang Lee’s sixth English-language film. That’s one more than the five foreign-language films Lee has made. What I find interesting about Lee is his choice of topics for his American films. I don’t think I am making too big of a leap in suggesting Ang Lee, originally from Taiwan, is attempting to better understand the American culture through film, and perhaps even attempting to help us understand our own culture a little better in the process.

Lee’s first American film being SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, not necessarily entirely an American topic, but does have it’s place in our culture as a significant work of English literature. From here, Lee tackles the 70’s culture in America with his brilliantly realized film THE ICE STORM, followed by a trek back in time to study the lesser-known pages of the American Civil War with another great film RIDE WITH THE DEVIL. From here, Lee would truly challenge himself by taking on a topic also very much rooted in our American culture. I feel Ang Lee wasn’t entirely sure he knew what he was getting into when he made HULK, perhaps unfamiliar with the essence of this portion of our culture more than the others.

Of course, Ang Lee made waves with BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which would also prove to be his most “controversial” film. But, enough of the Ang Lee history lesson. Let’s talk about peace, love and rock-n-roll. Let’s talk the late 60’s, Vietnam and Woodstock. Actually, we’re not going to talk much about the Vietnam War because the film barely touches on the topic at all. Strange, considering how the entire phenomenon known as Woodstock came about in response to the war.

In general, this portion of the era and story are embodied within Emile Hirsch’s performance as Billy, a friend of Elliott’s who has returned from the war and suffers from flashbacks, or post-traumatic stress disorder, but it’s not mentioned as such in the film. As much as I admire and appreciate Hirsch (INTO THE WILD, MILK) as a talented actor, his performance in TAKING WOODSTOCK left me unaffected, wanting something more and to some small extent unhappy with the minimal inclusion of this crucial element to the big picture of the story.

TAKING WOODSTOCK tells the story of Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) and his unsuspected success at being the catalyst that made Woodstock happen. Elliot is a college-aged Jewish boy who has returned home to the rural upstate New York town of White Tail to assist his parents with their fledgling motel business as it teeters of the brink of failure. It’s clear that Elliot hates the idea of being shackled to the responsibility of running and saving the family business, but does so out of a sense of duty.

It isn’t until Elliot hears about a music festival seeking a rural venue after being repeatedly thrown out of one small farm town after another. He hears about the event from an eccentric theatre troupe bunking in his parents’ barn, led by Devon (Dan Fogler). In an effort to attract the event to his town as a way to boost tourism and save his family business, Elliot forms a surprising pact with local dairy farmer Max (Eugene Levy) to use his land for the festival. Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) acts as a sort of Zen-like mediator in the process of securing the deal between the event promoters and Max.

What I liked the most about this story was the attention to character development, especially with Elliot, but the film suffers a bit as a result of the two-hour running time. It’s not an uninteresting or painful two-hours, but it does slow the pace of the film enough to weaken the entertainment value. TAKING WOODSTOCK offers some great characters from great actors, including Eugene Levy’s thoughtful and uncharacteristically under-played performance as Max, Elliot’s parents Jake (Henry Goodman) and Sonia (Imelda Staunton) and best of all Liev Schreiber as Vilma, a transvestite and Korean War veteran who asists with security and befriends Elliot and his father.

What disappointed me the most about TAKING WOODSTOCK is that the film focused more on being funny and pleasing to the general audience and not nearly enough on the heart of the event. For example, there was an altogether shameful lack of music that appeared directly in the film. Marijuana and Acid had a bigger role than the music. That’s just not right, considering it’s a movie about how Woodstock came to be. Clearly the film isn’t intended to be a documentary or even focus on the musicians, but the film lacks any reasonable amount recognition to the music that made Woodstock great.

TAKING WOODSTOCK is a lushly shot film that isn’t hard to watch. Danny Elfman surprisingly earns a credit for the film’s original music, even if it is relatively hidden within the film. It’s an easy story that avoids any real controversy, and what little is there with Elliot’s character is sort of washed over with a quick brush of the director’s hand before moving back into the main arc of the story. Demetri Martin (THE ROCKER) gives a decent performance in his first starring role, but it’s difficult to separate his performance far from his persona created in his stand-up career. The film will certainly have an audience, but it’s difficult to say how well it can do, opening against some hefty late-summer competition in both Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN II and THE FINAL DESTINATION 3D.