ALL TOGETHER NOW
Rating: ** (out of ****)
Cast: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Michael, Yoko Ono
Director: Adrian Wills
Screened April 19th as part of Hot Docs. Also showing April 20th at 3:45 PM at the Bloor.

Among the more interesting aspects of Adrian Wills’ All Together Now, a documentary about the production of the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles show Love (currently playing at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas), is the sheer idolatry with which it views the Beatles. When Paul McCartney is seen entering the room in behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, the camera darts around the gathering crowd like a nervous autograph-seeker. Later, during Love’s opening night, the camera catches a few quick glimpses of McCartney and Ringo Starr seated next to each other in the audience, occasionally dancing along and lip-synching the music they wrote over forty years ago. These shots are very quick; it’s tempting to think of the cameraman, after capturing a few seconds of McCartney and Starr, running outside and telling the other crew members, “OMIGOD! I JUST SAW PAUL AND RINGO!”

Well, he does have a point. McCartney and Starr have reached a level of pop culture royalty where they can get a standing ovation for just showing up. “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and say, ‘Wow, I’m a Beatle!,’” says McCartney during All Together Now. “Only four people in the whole world can say that. In the whole universe!” The blind hero-worship of All Together Now is understandable, but it’s a shame that the rest of the film remains at that same superficial level. The film is slick and efficient, and it contains some modest pleasures for Beatles fans, but it’s not very filling. It plays more like an 85-minute commercial than a documentary.

One of the problems is that there is little suspense over whether Love will be a success. With the mighty Beatles, Cirque du Soleil, Mirage, and Apple names all backing it to the tune of an estimated $180 million, the show ain’t exactly an underdog. A few very minor backstage squabbles (most involving Yoko) are very quickly settled, and there is little inherent drama about a show whose production goes by smoothly. A lot of the behind-the-scenes footage is surprisingly mundane. And yes, this movie has a lot of Beatles music, but so does my iPod.

The film might have been more compelling had director Adrian Willis delved into some of the personalities behind the show. Apart from his glowing portraits of the Beatles and their associates, however, few people are given much screen time. (The closest thing to a scene-stealer is a good-natured African dancer, but Willis uses him rather cheaply as a comic relief). Willis might also have made a more interesting film if he really examined why the Beatles have endured. Why do the Beatles continue to resonate with audiences to such an extent that the last two years have brought not only Love, but also two other Beatles revues (Rain and The Cast of Beatlemania) and a big budget Beatles-inspired movie (Across the Universe)? All Together Now is more interested in adoration than analysis.

In between all the puffery, some really nice moments do manage to creep in that suggest how much better this film could have been. Dominic Champagne, the director of Love, plays nervously with a file clip several times. George Martin offhandedly mimes the cellist part in “She’s Leaving Home.” Yoko Ono has a near-hissy fit over the “sleazy” treatment of “Come Together.” McCartney banters with Martin, recalling with some amazement how songs that he scribbled on the back of an envelope have reached iconic status. Ringo Starr air-drums while watching the show. And McCartney, leaving all false modesty behind, reflects, “We were a really fucking good band.”