Great World of Sound 3 stars
Pat Healy, Kene Holliday, Rebecca Mader, Robert Longstreet, John Baker, Tricia Paoluccio
Directed by Craig Zobel
Having worked on The Apprentice, director Zobel’s witnessed firsthand the lengths to which ordinary folks will go to achieve fame, wealth and success, or at least remove themselves from whatever unacceptable existence they’ve discovered themselves stuck in. His Great World tells the story of the self-doubting Martin (a magnetic Healy), who falls in with a company promising to give the undiscovered musical talents of Charlotte, Louisville, Biloxi and beyond a chance at stardom … as long as they’re willing to pony up the “good faith” dough to get the ball rolling.
There’s subtle humor to spare in the lively dialogue, most of it courtesy of Martin’s unassailable partner Clarence (Holliday), and welcome commentary on the state of modern star-making machinery. But the film abruptly switches gears during the “audition” scenes, for which real Middle-American hopefuls were told they were performing for real producers. The scripted and documentary-style segments don’t mesh particularly well, and the momentum of the scammers-getting-scammed storyline is subverted in favor of forced, discomforting voyeurism. Moreover, the broken-dream consequences of the producers’ actions remain conspicuously absent. Overall Zobel’s aim for realism is admirable, but he inadvertently revokes his own ability to suspend disbelief in the process.