VH1 Changes Course for ‘Sweetwater’ Tale

VH1 rebuilt itself around star-studded programs “Behind the Music” and “Where Are They Now?” So it seems odd that for its first TV movie, “Sweetwater: A True Rock Story,” it dramatizes the tale of a never-quite-got-there.

But the story of obscure late-’60s L.A. band Sweetwater and its talented young singer Nansi Nevins (played here by Amy Jo Johnson of “Felicity”) follows the exact kind of triumph-to-tragedy-to-redemp- tive-triumph-over-tragedy arc that has made “Behind the Music” such a hit.

The fact is, the band was quite good, if not as revolutionary as the film makes out. With Nevins’ voice (not unlike Grace Slick’s) and a lineup featuring cello and flute as well as rock instruments, the baroque-pop sounds and Aquarian-age lyrics fell between early Jefferson Airplane and the Mamas and the Papas (whose Michelle Phillips plays present-day Nevins). Sweetwater made three interesting albums (not just one, as the film has it) and was the first band to perform at Woodstock (though not the first act, as is heavily implied; that honor went to Richie Havens).

On the verge of bigger things, Nevins suffered the requisite tragedy (which we won’t give away) and she and the group disappeared.

Enter the central contrivance of the film: that tired device (“Eddie and the Cruisers,” not to mention “Citizen Kane”) of a reporter tackling a mystery. Here it’s one Cami Carlson (Kelli Williams) of a fictional VH1-like channel, fresh out of rehab with a chip on her shoulder bigger than the 30-day sobriety chip dangling from her wrist. You know before the first scene is through that A) she’ll struggle to find her quarry while B) struggling with her own demons as C) her personal battles mirror those of Nevins’ and D) she learns as much about herself as about her subject.

Meanwhile, the clothes and manners are more ‘90s Vogue retro than vintage ‘60s life (or Life, for that matter), Johnson’s post-Jewel hippie chick particularly so--though she’s otherwise commendable as the spunky yet troubled young Nevins and did her own more-than-credible singing.

And Carlson’s difficulties finding clues about Nevins’ fate are ludicrous and disingenuous. In real life, as scriptwriter Victoria Wozniak surely knew, five minutes of online research could have led straight to Nevins’ doorstep--there were three Times stories alone between 1989 and 1994 about her, all mentioning her post-music life as an Orange County college writing teacher.

And the film’s inevitable, climactic 1999 reunion? Um, well, it isn’t as if they hadn’t seen one another in 30 years. In 1994, Nevins herself wrote that the surviving members were then playing music together. Hey, why let facts get in the way of a story, “true” or otherwise?

* “Sweetwater: A True Rock Story” premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on VH1. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).