Music Within (R)

“Most people die without discovering their own genius.”

This quote serves as a powerful reminder that while we all struggle to find our place in the universe, most people succumb to the plight and boredom of their humdrum existence.  The movie it’s from, “Music Within,” is the 2007 drama based on the true story of Richard Pimentel and his lifelong struggles to find his own inner music.

The journey begins with his birth in a Portland Oregon hospital in 1947.  Pimentel (played and narrated by Ron Livingston) immediately advises that he was “born with the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. I’ve been pissed off ever since.”

Pimentel has an arduous childhood, with his father dying when he is very young, and his mother (Rebecca De Mornay), suffering from the psychological effects of having miscarried several other children.  She is unstable, and as a result, Richard shuffles to and from foster homes for several years.  After performing well at a school speech, Richard has aspirations of becoming a professional public speaker.

Unable to afford college, he enlists in the military and suffers a debilitating injury in Vietnam that renders him almost completely deaf – he can hear sounds and a constant ringing in his ears due to permanent tinnitus – but can barely understand normal conversation.  He’s told by a doctor the constant ringing he hears will no doubt drive him insane.

Richard teaches himself to read lips using a mirror and enrolls in Portland State University where he meetsand be friends a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy stricken genius named Art Honeyman (Michael Sheen).  Despite his condition, Art has a jovial outlook on life, always joking and trading insults, and teaches Richard to embrace his disability.  The two form a synergistic relationship.  As Livingston narrates, “the only person on the planet I could hear was a wickedly obscene genius with cerebral palsy and the only person who could understand him was a deaf vet. We were like a travelling freak show.”

As the friendship and bond between the men grows, Art makes Richard rethink his life’s ambitions, and he sets out on a mission that will eventually lead to the creation and passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

For some reason the movie is rated ‘R’ – which in this case should stand for ‘Required Viewing.’  “Music Within” will teach you the true story of an often forgot group of people discriminated and looked down upon – people with disabilities.  Ron Livingston, known for his comedic performance in “Office Space,” carries the film in the role of Richard Pimentel. Michael Sheen delivers an Oscar worthy portrayal of Art Honeyman.  Together, they form a duo that oozes the real life friendship these men have, capped off perfectly by Richard’s defense of Art at the hands of an ignorant man’s comment: “My friend is not a retard actually he’s probably smarter than the 3 of us put together. He’s certainly smarter than you. He’s got cerebral palsy.  See, it affects his motor skills.  It means that his brain is perfectly functioning while his body is more or less useless. If you have a little trouble wrapping your head around that think of it as the opposite of you.”

Check it out for a great film and learning experience you won’t forget.

– by Matt Christopher