‘Music Within’ a totally unnecessary story

Why was this movie made? What is its purpose? To educate us about a man who played a central role in forming and advancing the laws that currently protect the rights of Americans with physical disabilities. If this is why you should watch this movie, for its educational value, why isn’t it just a documentary? Why does it have to be a drama? Why the actors? Why a script that employs the techniques and enhancements of fiction to tell a “true story”? Really, why?

All we need is the information: Richard Pimentel (Ron Livingston) was born in the 1950s to a mad and white mother and sad and Chinese father; his childhood was lonely; his mother became even more loony; his father died in restaurant accident (killed by a barrel of soy sauce). Richard, however, had a gift for public speaking. Because his gift did not translate into a college scholarship, he went to Vietnam; because the war cost him his hearing, he became an activist for disabled people; because of his years of hard work and activism, the Americans with Disabilities Act became a reality.

Now, what more do you want to know about this man’s life than these facts? Yes, he had a woman in his life; yes, he had his ups and downs with her. But nothing in all that he went through with her and others close to him has much cinematic value. Richard is no (sweeping) Ghandi, no (heroic) Malcolm X, no (graceful) Queen Elizabeth. Speaking of the Queen, the actor, Michael Sheen, who plays Richard’s best friend, a wheelchair-bound man suffering from severe cerebral palsy, is the actor who plays Tony Blair in The Queen. I’m not saying anything.

MUSIC WITHIN DIR. STEVEN SAWALICH | RATED R | AT SELECT THEATERS IN LA AND OC

Tags: Film, music within, ron livingston