Product DescriptionRon Livingston delivers the performance of a lifetime in this acclaimed film based on the incredible true-life story of Richard Pimentel. Deafened by a bomb blast in Vietnam, Richard (Livingston) returns home and discovers his life's calling: helping others with disabilities, including his fellow veterans. Along with his bestfriend Art (Michael Sheen), a wheelchair-bound rebel with a wicked wit, Richard fights for the rights of those whose voices can't always be heard. Music Within is a powerful and inspiring journey that every American should take. - Actors: Rebecca De Mornay, Hector Elizondo, Ron Livingston, Yul Vázquez, Michael Sheen
- Director: Steven Sawalich
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
- Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language (Subtitled): English
- Language (Subtitled): Spanish
- Language (Original Language): English
- Language (Dubbed): French
- Language (Dubbed): Spanish
- Region Code: 1
- Release Date: 2008-04-08
- Running Time: 94 minutes
- Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Customer ReviewsReviewed on 2008-06-14 
Brilliant!!!
One of the BEST movies I've ever seen!!! Absolutely brilliant! Inspiring, beautiful, touching, amazing!!! Highly recommend to anyone and everyone! What movies should be all about... Deserves every award and acclaim. Anyone who says they don't like this movie must not appreciate the triumph of the human spirit. |  | Reviewed on 2008-06-02 
Not perfect but a good story
The story is really inspirational. The acting while not great was pretty good in my opinion. Ron Livingston did a good job as the lead. The film was rough at times with cuts and cinematography but the story and Livingston's performance combined with the witty humor make this a film worth watching. | | Reviewed on 2008-05-19
Missed Opportunity
The biopic aspect of the story is interesting, but everything else--from the acting to the use of music to cue nearly every plot event--is downright ridiculous. Huge waste of time. I couldn't make myself finish it. I'd rather find a well-written account of the events and have a good read instead. | | Reviewed on 2008-05-11
A generally solid biopic, although it loses its footing at times
Music Within is a biopic revolving around Richard Pimentel, a wounded Vietnam vet whose efforts at finding jobs for fellow wounded vets along with his friendship with Art Honeyman, a writer with severe cerebral palsy, led to Richard's widespread workplace disability training and the eventual creation and adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
However, despite solid performances by Ron Livingston as Richard, Melissa George as his love interest Christine, and Michael Sheen as Art, the film falls into predictable pitfalls. First, as a Vietnam-era biopic, with the vintage soundtrack and generic battlefield sequences, Music Within feels like it could have been pulled from Forrest Gump (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition), Born on the Fourth of July (Special Edition) or any number of films revolving around Vietnam vets' painful readjustments to civilian life. Livingston is simply too old to pull off a convincing teenage Richard, and the scenes of Richard's early childhood are awkward and strike a sour note. The role of Christine, Richard's love interest, was one-dimensional and instantly forgettable (she appears when the script requires it, other than that she's off practicing "free love" with her other boyfriends).
As a "disabled" film, there are moments that reminded me strongly of Rory O'Shea Was Here, an Irish indie film starring James McAvoy and Steven Robertson as wheelchair-bound rebels, one with muscular dystrophy and the other with severe cerebral palsy. Art's CP also brought to mind Daniel Day-Lewis's performance in My Left Foot (Special Edition), which also leads me to my next observation: despite comments from directors, surely there must be professional actors with actual cerebral palsy. Despite well-meaning portrayals, having able-bodied actors attempt to recreate the symptoms of CP, even if done well, always feels like a cheap shot to me, and at times Michael Sheen's performance borders on caricature. Also, despite a split-second scene of Richard's speech therapy class, the onscreen portrayal of lipreading is highly inaccurate.
The sloppy script lacks any real drama, and I agree with a reviewer who stated that the film would have been much more powerful if Art had been the narrator instead of Richard. The '70s is merely set dressing, and there is no sense of any real passage of time other than hairstyles. Despite the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos from Rebecca De Mornay, Hector Elizondo, and Leslie Nielsen, the film came off feeling unpopulated, focusing on Richard's quest with little real depth or insight, despite the backstory of his seeking acceptance from his mentally ill mother. There are numerous continuity goofs in respect to period details, but the sound editing, distorted at times to reflect Richard's tinnitus, is effective.
Overall, Music Within still had its moments, particularly from the razor-sharp wit of Art's painfully delivered lines (which, per other films with CP characters, are mostly unintelligible). Much like the device used in Rory O'Shea, Richard serves as Art's mouthpiece when dealing with other people since he is the only (!) person who can understand him. There is a lot of heavy profanity, drinking, and drug use by the Vietnam vets and several scenes involving death, so if you're sensitive to any of these, consider yourself forewarned. The DVD also features deleted scenes (nothing special), a commentary, several trailers for other films, and a keynote speech from the real Richard Pimentel. | | Reviewed on 2008-04-29
A Good `Small Film' that should have the editor killed
First off, Ron Livingston (as Richard Pimentel) is excellent in a dramatic role having been in so many great comedies (Office Space). Michael Sheen is absolutely brilliant as a wheelchair confined sufferer of Cerebral Palsy. In my mind, they blew it not having more screen time for Sheen.
Short to be short: The first 10 minutes of this self narrated film were excellent. Richard's mother(Rebeca deMorney) has had miscarriage after miscarriage (7 in fact) until Richard is miraculously born. The best line in the whole film is here. Richard narrates "I was born with my umbilical cord around my neck, and I have been pissed off ever since..." Richard (as a child) comes home repeatedly to find his `unstable' mother celebrating all the birthdays of her unborn children(with repeated overdoses of sleeping pills as candles burn on their birthday cakes), and basically denying her surviving son. My beef here, is they could have done so much more with that scenario. But the scenes were moronically cut (probably due to fitting into Hollywood's stupid desire to keep films 90 minutes or less), and we have to watch the deleted scenes to get the filler that makes it all make sense. Anyway, Pimentel strives to be recognized through debating, and through public (high School) speaking. He excels to the point even the strippers he works for (working as a cook after high school) back him up by giving a client an `extra show' and supplying him with a new suit.
Pimentel gives a great tryout (looking for a scholarship) as a speaker. But the college professor interviewing him (Hector Alonzo) rejects him. While he feels Pimentel has skill, he blows him off as not having heart. Pimentel revolts by joining the Army and ends up losing his hearing to acute tinnitus in a direct shelling in Vietnam.
Yada yada...he meets CP Sheen on a campus. For some reason, Pimentel cannot hear anyone else clearly. He can understand Sheen's weird vocalizations. They become friends. The best parts of this film are the verbal play between Sheen and Livingston!
yada yada, Pimentel falls for Melissa George (a stereotyped 1960's free spirit), and suddenly, Sheen is left as character to be named later as that relationship develops. Pimentel champions the disabled. His drive to help his fellow vets who couldn't get work, is a direct reflection on his childhood dream to be a superhero. It is shown as a very worthwhile cause, when in fact it is truly narcissistic. This attitude destroys his relationship with Melissa George.
In true Hollywood fashion, he reaches an epiphany, that his life is not what he wanted it to be, and he changes. He goes back to confront Elonzo, who (stereotypically) admits he's on Lithium, and one of the disabled Pimentel is championing for. But they don't follow it up! Then Richard's mother dies, and his self truth is realized. His ego is reined in, and he comes to terms with his drive to succeed being directly connected to his mother refusing to acknowledge his life.
There is SO much great acting in ths flick. But the editing is totally crap. Every single `deleted' scene needed to be left in the film. Every one of the deleted scenes showed way more than the final product.
I applaud the message of the film. But there is denying (after the first GREAT 10 minutes)why it went straight to dvd rental. Great performances by Livingston, Sheen, and George were totally wasted. Sheen especially. He was almost totally discarded in the last 30 minutes, and he was the catalyst to the whole film.
Watch the deleted scenes. They make the film whole.
The editor needs to be shot.
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