Review of The Music Never Stopped (2011) by Walter M — 02 Oct 2012

In "The Music Never Stopped," Henry(J.K. Simmons) and Helen Sawyer(Cara Seymour) receive a phone call that no parent wants to receive, that their son Gabriel(Lou Taylor Pucci) is seriously ill in the hospital, decades after they last heard from him. He has a benign tumor that has so greatly damaged his brain, that he is left with no short term memory or of anything else in the last twenty years. After Henry is made redundant at work, Helen goes to work for the first time at the same company for badly needed money for hospital fees. That frees up Henry's time to do research that leads him to Dianne Daley(Julia Ormond), a music therapist, who after a few initial struggles, makes a breakthrough with Gabriel.

Based on a true story, "The Music Never Stopped" handles a difficult subject well with sensitivity. Aiding that is J.K. Simmons who underplays nicely in a rare leading role. In fact, the movie makes excellent use of music, especially "Truckin'" which is about the only Grateful Dead song I like. However, in attempting to make the 80's look as drab as possible, the movie drifts into the trap of depicting the 60's as cliched as possible, with the focus squarely on the generation gap.(The source material is an Oliver Sacks essay called "The Last Hippie.") And if Gabriel's memory is decades behind the times, then how come he does not freak out with everybody looking much older than they should?(Hat tip: the television show "Perception").