“Musical Chairs”
Supposedly based on fact (a case study by Oliver Sacks called “The Last Hippie”) Jim Kohlberg’s film “The Music Never Stopped” is a missed opportunity to tell an important story about the healing power of music. That’s because this rather serious subject is treated like an 80s disease-of-the-week made-for-TV movie.
Set in 1986, the story begins when two parents reconnect with their estranged son Gabriel after he’s lost his memory as the result of an operation to remove a brain tumor. Lou Taylor Pucci must be the luckiest actor alive to have landed the lead role of Gabriel without much acting experience or credits. His performance is laughably bad. His beard is worse.
Well known character actor J.K. Simmons plays Gabriel’s father as though he were Mike Brady of The Brady Bunch. It’s small consolation to know that his goofiness eventually becomes endearing in the end as he finally comes to embrace the 60s protest-rock music he once despised.