The Music Never Stopped

A tumour is found in Gabriel's brain. The operation saves his life and damages his memory: he cannot retain anything new and his mind has stayed at the end of the sixties. He left home years ago and never spoke to his family again; now his father has to look after him. There is no common ground between them. Then a therapist notices something: when music plays Gabriel changes, he talks, and for that time he is himself. To be able to speak to his son, the father starts learning the music he hates. Jim Kohlberg directs. J. K. Simmons plays the father and Lou Taylor Pucci plays Gabriel. The film rests on a case described by Oliver Sacks, a physician known for his books on neurology who worked for a long time on the effect of music on memory. The subject is not illness but the break between two generations. Father and son fell out over politics in the sixties and that same argument is still standing. The music has a function; the songs are real recordings of the period and the choices are made according to the character's memory. J. K. Simmons does not play his part for sympathy; the man is rigid, angry and slow to understand. Its limit is the emotional register; in the last section the narrative goes where it is expected and the resolution is too tidy. Who it is for: viewers who like music driven drama and family narratives. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the emotional emphasis is high, and the medical frame is simplified.