There's a lot of hope in this '
Great World of Sound.' A group of eager salesmen have been granted the title of "music producers" and turned loose on towns throughout the southern United States with the hope of finding new talent. Then there are the performers who answer the call for auditions, hoping to catch a break and record a hit song. Both groups, however, are unaware of the hope that carries the greatest weight here, hinted at by the film's first image of a regular old vinyl record being spray painted gold.
The main character here is the honest yet naive Martin (Pat Healy), who comes into this story with a string of past jobs and past loves. After being hired by Great World of Sound Productions, he is genuinely excited by the prospect of finding undiscovered talent. The money could allow him to run a home office selling the homemade crafts his girlfriend (Rebecca Mader) produces in the garage. Martin buddies up with a charismatic new hire named Clarence (Kene Holliday), and soon the duo is sent on the road to "audition" hopefuls who dream of having a hit song, with the caveat that the prospects must provide some "investment" up front to help make that dream come true.
Right off the bat, most viewers are going to find the whole operation suspicious (that record album shot pretty much sets the tone). Some might question why a guy like Martin wouldn't realize this, but he is indeed blinded by his hope at first. It's inevitable that Martin will discover the unsavory nature of the job, but how he deals with this realization carries some surprises. This is not a world of storybook optimism, yet it is not irredeemably cruel. There is an implication throughout that a little bit of personal responsibility and skepticism should help us avoid being coned ourselves.
The film's plot is straightforward, but the running time is padded slightly by a string of audition scenes utilizing a bit of '
Borat'-inspired trickery. Real musicians were brought in for auditions and only told afterwards that the hard sell for cash was for the sake of a film denouncing the practice. I don't object to this ethically, but stylistically, it doesn't fit perfectly with the rest of the film. More savvy viewers will detect the subtle differences in camera movement and performance. It should be noted, however, that Healy and Holliday are excellent improvisers, and their interactions with the non-actors are completely convincing. Some of the performances are even good, but a little of this goes a long way, and all the material included ends up a tad redundant.
Another reason the audition scenes are distracting is because the film surrounding them is quite well-crafted and performed. Director/co-writer Craig Zobel has perfectly cast this film and keeps the actors' performances very naturalistic. The supporting characters, particularly the bosses at Great World of Sound (Robert Longstreet and John Baker), all make the most of their limited time on-screen. Zobel has been a production manager on some of the films of David Gordon Green ('
Undertow', '
All the Real Girls'), and 'Great World of Sound' shares his affinity for the south and intimate, understated human drama. Green returns the favor here by taking on producer duties.
Like most debut features, 'Great World of Sound' isn't perfect, but it shows a great deal of promise. Zobel handles some tricky material thematically and even manages to keep things stylistically interesting. My hope is that he continues to make singularly challenging yet entertaining films like this one.