Dir: Christopher Guest. US. 2003. 92mins.

Like the two earlier pictures which writer/director/actor Christopher Guest co-wrote with Eugene Levy - 2000's Best In Show and 1996's Waiting for Guffman - A Mighty Wind is a film with a premise but no plot. The concepts themselves - a folk music reunion, the rarified world of dog shows and the backstage histrionics of community theatre - are the stories, which provide a forum for self-important, rather specious characters who entertain inane ideas which they themselves take extremely seriously. While 2000's Best In Show proved a surprise hit in the US (where it registered a gross of $18.7m), it performed negligibly overseas. A Mighty Wind looks likely to repeat this pattern: it had a strong three-day opening in the US, taking $2.2m from 133 sites for a $16,541 average. It may have more success abroad on ancillary, where Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap - another musical comedy starring Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean - has become a cult item in some territories, moreso on DVD.

'Where have all the flowers gone' The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind'. ' Audiences who fail to recognise these lines from two of the most popular American folk tunes ever recorded (by Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan respectively), are unlikely to find much to laugh about in Guest's new film. Even audiences who know every word by heart may sit stony-faced through this musical mockumentary about a reunion of 1960s-era folk singers.

When folk music record producer Irving Steinbloom passes away, his nerdy, anal son (Balaban) decides to stage a memorial concert. Reuniting for the big evening, some 35 years after they broke up, will be the aging hippy Folksmen trio (Guest, McKean and Shearer), the former lovebird duo Mitch & Mickey (Levy and O'Hara) and the nine-member Main Street Singers (Lynch, Higgins and Posey), whose sunny dispositions, mile-wide smiles and colourful outfits suggest a Bible-Belt cult.

Structured as a documentary, complete with present day interviews and archival footage of the bands when they were hot (very funny black-and-white interludes), A Mighty Wind tries to generate laughs from some very obvious character-related and situational set-ups. Main Street's wholesome lead singer Laurie Bohner (pronounced 'boner' and played to perfection by Lynch) was once an adult film star. Mitch wanders around in a permanent stupor, a reaction to his long-ago break-up with Mickey and his subsequent spells in a mental institution. But the sight of a spaced-out, brain-fried Levy is unlikely to be most audience's idea of sidesplitting comedy.

Given that the film is a parody of a specific time and sensibility, one might expect the musical numbers to be as ridiculous as the characters performing them. And while many of the lyrics are intentionally nonsensical, the melodies themselves, along with the singing and playing, are great: the concert footage is performed by the cast members themselves and shot live. Sadly, the overall movie is not half as good as the toe-tapping music. Guest and company should shelve the film and go on tour instead.

Prod co: Castle Rock Entertainment
US dist: Warner Bros
Intl dist: Warner Bros Int'l
Prods: Karen Murphy
Scr: Guest, Eugene Levy
Cinematographer: Arlene Donnelly Nelson
Pro des: Joseph T Garrity
Ed: Robert Leighton
Music: Jeffrey CJ Vanston
Main cast: Bob Balaban, Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Jane Lynch, Mike McKean, Guest, Parker Posey