Movie Review: Taking Woodstock

“Taking Woodstock” is the true story of Elliot Tiber, a young man searching for a way to protect his parents from financial ruin in the late 60′s. Elliott is an unsuccessful artist and interior designer who moves from Greenwich Village to his parents upstate motel to help them survive as the bank gets ready to foreclose on them. Elliott contacts the producers of Woodstock when their permit for another venue is canceled, becoming part of the historic Woodstock festival.

Ang Lee ably directs, shooting the film much the same in multiple screens the way the documentary Woodstock was filmed. Lee captures the feeling of the original documentary and lends a fantasy feeling to the events at the festival. Demetri Martin is charming and believable as Elliot. The strongest performances are from Imelda Staunton as Elliot’s mother, Henry Goodman as Elliot’s father, Emile Hirsch as a vet back from Vietnam, with my favorite performance by the talented Liev Schreiber as Vilma, a transvestite ex-marine providing festival security. The art direction, photography and costumes are excellent, and the supporting cast is strong. Although you see the expanse of the fields you never see the bands playing. This is really a character study of Elliot and how the festival came to be at the center of this story.

I enjoyed the film but I wasn’t totally taken away with it, something I was really looking for in a film about Woodstock. For me it was a good film, not a great film. The music was more of a background to the movie and I missed this being more of a part of the story. Woodstock is a good film with some charming moments and an uplifting theme, a movie most film fans should enjoy.

2009. Directed by Ang Lee. Starring Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Henry Goodman, Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy, Mamie Gummer Jonathan Groff and Liev Schreiber.

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