Beatlemania Has Taken Over in I Wanna Hold Your Hand

My brother Nathan, the most avid Beatles fan in our family, was home this week, so the timing was just right for my latest Netflix delivery, a movie called I Wanna Hold Your Hand that takes place on the February day in 1964 when the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Though I wasn't familiar with any of the principal cast members, I'm certainly a fan of director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg, and the subject matter intrigued me, so when my friend Beth reviewed it here a while back, I stuck it in my queue. While I agree with her that it's a little excessively silly, a few laughs were just what we needed last night.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand chronicles the adventures of six teenagers who, for one reason or another, are determined to get to the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City for the Beatles' big show. They're from Jersey, and intrepid aspiring photographer Grace (Theresa Saldana), who is desperate for the chance of a career-making photo, has discovered that limousines are allowed to pull up to the hotel where the Beatles will be staying, so she sweet-talks the shy, awkward, not-yet-licensed Larry (Marc McClure) into commandeering his dad's limo and taking a little road trip.

Also along for the ride are reluctant Pam (Nancy Allen), who's about to get married and doesn't think her fiance will be thrilled about her spending her last night as a single woman out chasing the Beatles, and spastic Paul fanatic Rosie (Wendie Jo Sperber), who knows the answer to every trivia question on the radio and will risk life and limb to get to a phone in an effort to win a coveted pair of tickets. Janis (Susan Kendall Newman), a long-haired counter-culturalist who I'm guessing was named after Janis Joplin, wants to protest these artistically barren moptops in a place where she's most likely to get extensive exposure. The last to join the group is Tony (Bobby DiCicco), a Fonzie-like greaseball with a too-cool-for-school 'tude who tags along by pulling off one of the most reckless automobile stunts I've ever seen.

The chief attribute of this movie is that it is loud. My goodness, those Beatles groupies could screech. And it isn't just squealing and hollering, either; it's sobbing hysterically and trampling each other in an effort to catch a glimpse of their beloved Liverpool boys. If I were John, Paul, George or Ringo, I think I would be terrified. We don't really get to see the lads much, though we do catch a few glimpses of them thanks to Pam, who, despite not really wanting to be there at all, manages to get within close proximity to them on a couple of occasions. It's fun to hear their banter and to observe Pam's reactions, though her initial response to being in the Beatles' hotel room is rather indecent. I would have expected it of the ludicrous Rosie, but not the apparently level-headed Pam. But then this day is all about self-discovery.

While the teens arrive together, it doesn't take long for them to split up, so there's a lot of madcap action as their paths intersect and each faces different challenges in achieving the desired end. After her initial stalking efforts are thwarted, Rosie wriggles out of police custody only to hook up with Richard (Eddie Deezen), a bespectacled geek who is, amazingly, even more of a spaz than she is. An avid collector of Beatles memorabilia, this young man who insists on being called Ringo has been holing up illegally in one of the hotel's rooms. Though Rosie is still madly in love with Paul, she can't help but feel a spark of connection between her and this oddball.

Janis, too, makes a new friend in New York, a boy named Peter (Christian Juttner) whose father is holding his tickets to the Ed Sullivan Show hostage until the moptop gets a haircut. It's funny to hear the irascible father (Read Morgan) rant and rave about his son's girly hair when it's a style that, looking back, seems so natural and inoffensive. Peter is so attached to his look that he'd rather miss out on the Beatles than comply with his father's wishes, but with some help from an agitated Tony, Janis hatches a plan that leads to the boy going directly into the den of terror, complete with an intimidating one-eyed barber who reminds me of surly Mikhail from LOST.

Poor Larry does his best to accommodate Grace throughout the day, but she's so focused on getting her snapshot that it takes her a long time to realize what a gentleman he is. He strikes me as a prototype for Back to the Future's wimpy George McFly, particularly in one scene in which he utters a line that is given to George seven years later. He seems like the most normal one of the bunch, though he has his quirks, most notably very poor driving skills - though his unruly passengers don't help him out any on that score. If the hysterics of the young (and not-so-young) women in this movie are disturbing, the driving habits of the general teenage population are downright alarming.

Fans of the Beatles will enjoy bopping along to some of their hits, particularly the title song, which plays in the opening credits atop footage of the lads landing in New York. They'll also want to keep an ear out for references to later songs that are cleverly incorporated into dialogue. Meanwhile, if the 60s is your scene when it comes to music, it's fun to hear various characters discuss other musicians like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Peter Paul & Mary. Zemeckis fans, meanwhile, should be on the lookout for elements incorporated into his later films.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a silly movie, and most of its characters are so shrill that they can only be handled in small doses. There's some risky business going on behind closed hotel room doors as well as out in the streets, where obsessed fans will do just about anything to increase their likelihood of contact with John, Paul, George or Ringo. But the protagonists are likable even when they're irritating, and it's fun to watch the very different ways in which they come closer to their goals. I'm not sure if I could have braved a crowd in the throes of Beatlemania, but watching it all unfold on my TV screen is a pretty enjoyable way to spend an evening.