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Mix in a cup of Almost Famous. Add two teaspoons of It’s a Wonderful Life. Sprinkle the GTH Studio’s renowned comedic and nostalgic seasoning. The result is a confusing mumbo jumbo of mismatched genres that promises many things but ends up delivering nothing. With seven writers crafting the story, Wittaya Thongyuyong’s The Possible is clearly a case of too many cooks spoil the broth.
Part comedy, part drama, and part musical, this first solo effort by the fifth of the six rising directors of the 2003 smash hit My Girl tells a story of a fictional 1970’s band of the same name, which, during a concert performance, receives from a fan a toy microphone that transports the band members 27 years into the future—to the present day when no one remembers them anymore.
With the band humorously anachronistic, the movie has the material to be rolling-on-the-floor hilarious, but ends up employing too few jokes and feeling too restrained. The anachronism-related humor seems to stop at outdated clothes and overpriced noodles early in the story. It leaves other jokes, such as the theatre owner’s Chinese accent, the band’s disastrous search for a new trumpeter, and the alternative history in which this fictional band has inspired the real-life legendary band The Impossible (portrayed in the story as impersonators), too spaced out in the two-hour runtime.
Toward the end, the movie has a change of heart and decidedly becomes a bromidic drama examining the band members’ struggles with friendship, stardom, and romantic commitment. With exception of the last problem in which the movie goes into detail (by showing the lead singer’s realization that his girlfriend remains in love with him three decades later in spite of his commitment issues), other two problems receive a quick-fix treatment that loses any accompanying emotional impact. In one scene, a character notices that the band is “lost”. In not too many scenes later, the band is reunited with individual shortcomings magically resolved.
Here and there, the movie aspires to be a musical, breaking into upbeat music numbers to which the audience can tap their feet. But, again, the audience will be disappointed because the movie refuses to be a Broadway musical with characters singing and dancing. The beginning flight attendant scene is probably the closest to a choreographed number this movie will ever get.
Writing and performing the songs himself, Apisit “Joey Boy” Opartiemlikit, who is a popular musician in real life, has no problem playing the fictional band’s lead singer. He also passes the mark when it comes to acting even though The Possible is his big screen debut. The rest of the band, however, is new to acting and the record clearly shows.
With actors looking as lost, confused, and unsure as the plot, the movie simply breaks down and leaves the audience with intermittent and momentary pleasures that quickly, and sadly, disappear with the passing of time.
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