The Music Never Stopped (2011)

Beautiful, moving film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

My wife and I watched this movie on Amazon streaming. While it appears to be a fictional story the science of using music to activate regions of the brain is real.Gabriel is born into a typical 1940s/1950s family with post-WW2 values. Work hard, study hard, eat dinner together, do family things. But Gabriel didn't fit easily into this mold, in fact he was more interested in music, like the group "The Grateful Dead". It blew up one evening in the late 1960s and Gabriel left home, just before he finished high school and pretty much lost contact with his family.Flash to the late mid 1980s and the family gets a call, Gabriel is hospitalized, turns out he has a very large, slow-growing benign tumor in his brain. Surgery is successful but Gabriel is different, he can't really carry on a conversation and can't seem to form new memories.A therapist gets involved and uses music, specifically the music that Gabriel identified with over the years, like The Dead, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and each time as the music starts Gabriel becomes animated, he carries on intelligent conversations, it is as if the music activates deep memories in his brain. And ultimately the family, especially his dad, is able to reconnect with him through the music which never stopped.Really good movie but a bit sad in certain scenes. Good acting from the principals, J.K. Simmons as dad, British actress Cara Seymour as the mom, and Pucci Lou as Gabriel.

Glad i took time to watch this, its these gems that make you wanna try other movies that you might haven't heard of.J.K. Simmons does a great performance as the dad, reluctantly getting to know his son again after all the years that gone by and some misunderstandings in how they actually fell apart.Have your hanger chief ready, a little tear will fall if you have any empathy.I would certainly recommend it and its a nice trip down memory lane with a lot of top notch music from the hippie days and also before that.

This movie moved a little slow, however, it was really quite touching.This movie is about a family whose son runs away and they find him 20 years later but he suffers from a brain tumor that has left him with no short-term memory. The father reconnects with his son through music.The family history, the story, and the reconnection between the father and son is really quite moving. The acting is believable, which helps pull you into the story, and makes you care. This is not an exciting drama, but it is interesting enough that you want to hear the story.Despite its slow nature, I still enjoyed this movie. It was heart felt and I can appreciate that.

Oliver Sacks, M.D. is a physician and professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center. In 2007, he was named the first Columbia University Artist, in recognition of his contributions to the arts. THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED is an adaptation (by Gwyn Lurie and Gary Marks) of "The Last Hippie", a short story/essay from Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", a collection of case history stories. Dr. Sacks is a neurologist who has spent his career diagnosing, evaluating, and treating a variety of neurological disorders (and the oftentimes the profound personality shifts that resulted in brain injury or trauma). This information provides a bit of reality ground to the film and makes it all the more important to see and respect. As directed by Jim Kohlberg, this film is a quiet, reverent, at times disturbing exploration of the many aspects of brain function and malfunction and an example of adaptation to these challenges. Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Taylor Pucci) was a bright youngster in the 1070s when the Vietnam war was altering the nation's perception of right and wrong as expressed in the music of Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Cream, the Beatles, etc. Longing to be a professional musician he foregoes his parent's wishes that he attend college and with regret leaves his girlfriend Tamara (Tammy Blanchard) and takes off for New York's Greenwich Village. Fast forward to 1986 and Gabriel is hospitalized for an enormous brain tumor, surgically removed, but leaving Gabriel without the ability to remember. At this point Gabriel's parents are located and his father Henry (J.K. Simmons) and mother Helen (Cara Seymour) visit him in the hospital, longing to reconnect with the son that has been absent for fifteen years. The lack of memory emphasizes the schism between Henry and Gabriel and Henry's depressed state results in his being placed on sick leave from his successful job to deal with the trauma of his family. Music having been so important to Gabriel as young man introduces the music therapist Dianne Daley (Julia Ormond) who meticulously follows the cues form Gabriel's attention span and is able to open the doorway to his memory loss through his love of the music of his time. Henry latches on to this and decides the only way he will be able to rebuild the broken fence of his relationship to Gabriel will be through music and together the two find connection despite the neurological blockades. The cast is exemplary: J.K. Simmons is splendid as the father, Cara Seymour makes the mother wholly credible, Julia Ormond gives a selfless, fine performance, and Lou Taylor Pucci brings life to the long injured Gabriel. The music is by the recordings of the period with special music supplied by Paul Cantelon. Stephen Kazmierski's camera work allows almost unbearably touching close-ups of each of the actors that open the story for us. This is a film based on a true case history, but this is also a story that is immensely touching and uplifting simply from the way it has been written, directed and acted. Grady Harp