The Music Never Stopped is a drama film, release date in the US to be announced later. The film is directed by Jim Kohlberg and stars Julia Ormond as Dianne Daley, J.K. Simmons as Henry Sawyer, Lou Taylor Pucci as Gabriel Sawyer, Tammy Blanchard as Tamara, Mía Maestro as Celia, Cara Seymour as Helen Sawyer, Scott Adsit as Doctor Biscow, Alex Ziwak as Stage Security, Joe Urban as Stage Security, Kelly AuCoin as Dr. Gilbert, Peggy Gormley as Florence, Anthony Del Negro as Collegiate Candidate, Kevin Cannon as Drug Dealer, Max Antisell as Young Gabriel and Vaughn Goland as Greatful Dead Security.
Movie synopsis: The film is based on the case study “The Last Hippie” by Dr. Oliver Sacks, M.D. (“Awakenings”), chronicles the journey of a father and son adjusting to cerebral trauma and a lifetime of missed opportunities. Through the music that embodied the generation gap of the 1960s, the film weaves the heartwarming progress of Henry and Gabriel.
The Music Never Stopped movie trailer
In 1967, after his father Henry Sawyer (J.K. Simmons) forbids him to see a Grateful Dead concert, prodigal son Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Taylor Pucci) runs away from home. Nearly twenty years later, Henry, a straight-laced engineer and lover of big band music, is shocked to learn that his estranged son requires major surgery to remove a previously neglected brain tumor.
After the operation, the extent of Gabriel’s condition is made clear: the tumor damaged the part of his brain that facilitates the creation of new memories. For Gabriel, past, present, and future become indistinguishable, and he lives fixed in the era of Vietnam, acid tests, and psychedelic music. Determined not to let their son slip away from them again, Henry and wife Helen (Cara Seymour) vow to connect with Gabriel, who is barely able to communicate effectively. Unhappy with Gabriel’s lack of progress, Henry does his own research on brain injuries, which leads him to Dr. Dianne Daly (Julia Ormond). She is a music therapist who has used her methods to make significant progress with victims of brain tumors.
As Diane works with Gabriel, she realizes that he is most responsive to the music of the psychedelic era – the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and particularly the Grateful Dead. Even though he is unaware the era of his music has long passed, the effect is remarkable, and he begins to be able to have conversations and express himself. Although Henry loathes rock and roll, he is determined to forge new memories and salvage his relationship with his son. While his own health fails, Henry begins his own pilgrimage through the bands of the sixties. As he learns the songs that animate his son’s soul, he indeed begins to form an unusual but emotionally vibrant bond with the child he thought he had lost.
The Music Never Stopped is produced by Peter Newman and Greg Johnson, the acclaimed independent producers of the Golden Globe nominated film for Best Picture, The Squid and the Whale, and producers Julie W. Noll and Jim Kohlberg.
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