The Commitments (1991)

IMDb plot summary: When Jimmy Rabbitte wants to start a band, he has open auditions at his house.
Directed by Alan Parker. Starring Robert Arkins, Johnny Murphy, Andrew Strong, and Glen Hansard.

This is a tough movie to write about because while it has lots of good things about it, none of them really touched me emotionally. I love the idea of these kids tapping into soul as the music of the downtrodden, but that idea gets thrown out the window pretty quickly and it much more closely resembles a biopic of a tough-to-please rock band, with all its ups and downs. Once the whole band is together, it somehow loses its appeal for me, and, oddly, even a musical fan like me got a little tired of the songs (though that "Try a Little Tenderness" was pretty fantastic). I like that the movie ends on an unexpected note, I like the first third of the movie, and I like the premise behind the movie, but the things I liked about it at the beginning fizzled out quickly.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Commitments > The Dark Knight Rises, which is way too high on my chart
The Commitments < The Artist
The Commitments > Tangled
The Commitments < Away We Go
The Commitments < Demetri Martin. Person.
The Commitments < Secret Window
The Commitments < Kung Fu Hustle
The Commitments < The Time Traveler's Wife
The Commitments < The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)
The Commitments < Being John Malkovich
The Commitments < Yellowbeard
The Commitments > Peter Pan Live!

Final spot: #947 out of 2529.