‘Mr. Jimmy’ Review: Trying for That Perfect Page Re-Creation

The Led Zeppelin founder Jimmy Page is the envy of guitar gamers, and nonplayers, the world over. Mike D of the Beastie Boys expressed the wishful pondering of many when he boasted in a rap, “If I played guitar I’d be Jimmy Page.”

No one understands this higher, it occurs, than Akio Sakurai, a Japanese musician who has devoted a long time to taking part in guitar within the various modes that Page utilized in his years as Led Zeppelin’s lead instrumentalist. He recollects at some point off from his job as a kimono salesman, seeing the Zep live performance movie “The Song Remains The Same,” and being mesmerized by the ability of Page’s taking part in. He turned obsessive about recreating it.

The first hour of the film incorporates a lot of guitar wonkiness as Sakurai, nicknamed “Mr. Jimmy,” consults with technicians, engaged on getting his personal axes and amps as near Page’s gear as he can. After Mr. Jimmy elaborates on the idiosyncrasies of Les Paul guitar pickup guards, one of many artisans he works with feedback, “We understand Jimmy’s obsession. It’s very Japanese.”

The movie, directed by Peter Michael Dowd, facilities on Sakurai’s upending his life to maneuver to Los Angeles and set up himself in a Zep tribute band; he lasts a few years, leaving as a result of the opposite members didn’t share his single-mindedness in reproducing Page’s onstage work.

“That is the meaning of tribute. Not showing myself at all. There is no ‘me’ to begin with,” Sakurai, who’s now 59, says at one level. This is a terrifying notion, however the film doesn’t select to run with it, as a substitute sticking to Mr. Jimmy’s profession travails within the States earlier than touchdown with a “Spinal Tap”-redolent blissful ending.

Mr. Jimmy
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. In theaters.