Sam Jones, director of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” has taken his camera into the inner circle of the band Wilco. He reveals the wrenches the band and those around them seem to be throwing into the gears of what is destined to be a great record. The film rolls through the streets of Chicago with lead singer Jeff Tweedy before cutting to the full band recording.

After the standard spiels from record executives and managers about the band being in the position now to gain the sort of exposure it deserves, and the band explaining how it finally has been able to make the record it’s always wanted to, the film deviates from the standard documentary format. Jones takes his camera and sits in on surreal interviews with lead singer Tweedy.

-Interviews with straight white teeth and grins from ear to ear expound on their intense love for Wilco before launching into the same questions asked by interviewer after interviewer. At this point, the viewer begins to understand the toll that the business of rock ‘n’ roll can take on the unsuspecting musician. The film cons the viewer into genuine sympathy for the band as tensions mount and the recording process pushes Tweedy into bouts of anxiety.

Jones has taken a personal look into the end of a friendship as Jay Bennet leaves the band; all while the record is rejected and Wilco is dropped from its record label.

Jones’ film rates with the Rolling Stones’ documentary “Gimme Shelter” showing a band struggling with its choices versus the direction that the industry sees for the band (excluding all the drugs, guns and women inherent in any film about the Rolling Stones).

“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” is an exercise in voyeurism, looking into the lives of very average guys accosted by the fast-talking representatives of the music industry. As David Fricke, senior editor of Rolling Stone, launches into how “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” is a metaphor for life, the viewer begins to understand what Wilco’s world is like. This band has to deal with people desperately trying to get close to whom they see as rock stars. We realize, though, that these are the same rock stars who were scrounging for money to eat at Wendy’s earlier that day.

“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” is what a documentary should be: It shows the veil of hype surrounding the band, and then tears down the curtain to reveal a group of very average guys..