Sadly Over-hyped

Purely Joyful Movie!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

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.

The story reveals an important fact: the relationship between music and the brain. More precisely, the fact that in our brain there exists a domain of memories connected to music, i.e, memories of many subjects (including music) which can be accessed through music and not only through words and/or concepts (relationships). Gabriel lost part of his brain because of a tumor and is not able to interact with people because his brain fails to make the necessary connections to understand what people expect from him. Yet, hearing music, he succeeds to retrieve many of his memories related to the music he hears. The part of the story which hard to believe is how much Gabriel's father was narrow minded (considering that they were living in New York) and the fact that after Gabriel quit his family house, his parents made no attempt to bring him back home, no matter where he would have gone. I would never do this with any one of my children. Any way, the last scenes - when the father succeeds to connect strongly to his son via music - are very moving because it's a kind of resurrection for both. The film is good, the actors competent, and it made me weep at the end. It deserves to be seen for sure.

this one is the best movie i saw in the last 2 years or so. thanks god my girlfriend wasn't here to see me cry. all in this movie is great:the characters, the story, the interpretation, even the bitter sweet ending. i usually don't tend to express my opinion towards a movie but this one made me share the way i felt about it with others. so, if you really want to see a touching movie, one which makes you proud for being a gods creation capable of such feelings you should watch it.p.s. 1.despite my numerous references to "God" i'm not a religious people at all 2. don't forget the napkins

I enjoyed this movie last night at the Foster Theater inside of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum...J.K. steals the movie in a dark-horse Oscar performance - but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the rest of the cast. (some production $$$ lacking, i.e. perhaps the worst fake beard ever) The STAR of this movie was *music* - not the soundtrack (although Deadheads will be thrilled), but the emotions and memories that music engenders. The way a song can change your mood, serve as a bridge to your memories. The movie has back-beats about father & son, husband & wife, a mother fretting over her son, Korean vs. Vietnam Wars, even lost love - but the hook is *music*...*that* song you heard when you met your best girl, *that* song playing when you first had sex, when *music* meant something to you on an emotional and visceral level.The movie harmonizes a teenager of the early 1950s as the father of a teenager of the late 1960s, showing how their mutual love of *music* manages to bring them back together across the generational gap - and the tumor-induced memory gaps of the son.If you've ever heard your parents say "turn that crap down", if you've ever said that to your own kid - this movie is for you. You will laugh, you will cry. You will leave the theater wanting to listen to some of your parents' music, and being a little more tolerant of that noise your kid is listening to...