Music Within (2007)

hyped garbage

Good concept, poorly executed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

"Music Within" tells the true story of Richard Pimentel, a Vietnam vet who lost almost all of his hearing on the battlefield and who spent the rest of his life advocating for the rights of the disabled. In fact, Pimentel was instrumental in getting the Americans With Disabilities Act passed into law.Hampered by pedestrian direction by Steven Sawalich and a superficial script, the film, nevertheless, boasts enough humorously sardonic moments to keep it from taking itself too seriously. The relationship between Richard and his longtime girlfriend Christine (played by Melissa George, who's a dead ringer for a young Sandy Dennis) is dealt with in trite and overly familiar terms, and the filmmaking itself never rises much above the level of disease-of-the-week, TV-movie competence.Still, the performances are good - especially by Michael Sheen as Richard's best buddy, Art Honeyman, a genius with Cerebral Palsy - and the material itself so moving and inspiring that one can easily overlook the movie's numerous stylistic weaknesses. And, besides, you get to see the late great Leslie Nielson in one of his last - and briefest - appearances as a forward-thinking doctor who changes Richard's life forever.

I ask because, if that is the actual Pimentel giving the speech in the included extras then it's pretty clear that the director intentionally cast someone much "better looking" by Hollywood standards than the real person to play the part; which really undermines the message. As one who hates discrimination, including discrimination against those who don't look or act "normal," I find it really sad that even a film about combating discrimination could not have as the central character someone a bit overweight. As if an audience would not buy the message if it were delivered by someone not "handsome" enough. The movie has a great story line, progress towards equality and opportunity win me over every time, but that casting choice kills it for me. On the other hand, if that is not the real Pimentel in the extras, and Ron Livingston does look like him, then I do recommend this.

A good movie, "Music Within", has some truly touching moments, and a compelling story to go along. Only the overuse of cut-away music became totally gratuitous. Ron Livingston seems like a good fit as the lead in this movie and has the right mix of humor, thoughtfulness, and wit. The scenes with Livingston as Richard and Michael Sheen as Art light up the movie. Together they confront a United States and Northwest of decades ago which hadn't quite figured out acceptance and tolerance. The first several scenes with them both becoming friends are spot-on. I also liked the way Richard confronts his own major problems through helping others. Generally the director and cast really made a good movie here while tackling a difficult subject of people's disabilities and confronting the social contexts they create.

I watched this movie last night. I prefer to think myself as an avid movie's collector and most of my all time favorite movies are movies like this one. This movie had everything a great storyline, exceptionally good acting, humor (both dark and light), and above all it was based on a true story. I was particularly moved by Michael Sheen's performance, which should be Oscar worthy by all standards. Ron Livingston was great too. What made me really appreciate the movie was its dialogs. Most of the situations were too heavy in terms of the sheer drama surrounding the characters, yet the dialogs were just very down to earth and sometimes even mixed with a unique humor to augment an already perfect setting. Writers did not pull any punches when it came for a character to shine in the spot light, yet most of the lines delivered were very humble and didn't, in any way, make the situation more dramatic....hence complementing the scene by cushioning the throbbing emotions of the people involved rather than over stating and pushing things over the edge.Start of the movie was really great and Ron's brand of narration just rightly set the tone for the events to come. My interpretation of the movie was just the whole deal with disabled people until it came to that point when Ron's character drew the parallel between him and "them". The highs and lows to follow, did the story quite a lot of justice.The ending was just absolutely breath-taking. It was soft and just concluded this ride with a whimper, but measured bang on the rechter scale.This movie is here to win hearts of viewers and unlike many movies that i have watched lately, it is here to make a winning statement with perfection. Watch it and buy yourself a conscious, if you don't have one already.