This Is Spinal Tap

Rob Reiner’s directorial debut, This is Spinal Tap follows the three primary members of a fading heavy metal outfit (Michael McKean’s David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest’s Nigel Tufnel, and Harry Shearer’s Derek Smalls) as they attempt to keep their collective careers going in the face of several obstacles. Reiner, employing the structure of a fake documentary, does a fantastic job of initially drawing the viewer into this admittedly over-the-top world, as the filmmaker offers up an assortment of compelling characters and subjects them to situations that are often genuinely hilarious (ie Nigel attempts to make sense of a platter consisting of tiny slices of bread and oversized cold cuts). There’s consequently little doubt that the meandering nature of This is Spinal Tap‘s structure is, at the outset, not nearly as problematic as one might’ve anticipated, yet it’s just as clear that the film begins to demonstrably run out of steam somewhere around its midway point – with Reiner’s unapologetically low-key modus operandi contributing heavily to the movie’s eventual downfall (ie the whole thing is just too slight and too insignificant to withstand a feature-length running time). The decidedly dramatic bent of the final half hour, which includes a fake breakup of all things, cements This is Spinal Tap‘s place as a sporadically amusing but all-too-uneven piece of work – although, having said that, it’s hard to deny the effectiveness of the legendary “it goes to 11” sequence (which alone justifies the film’s entire existence).

** out of ****