The Music Never Stopped

In 1986, a middle-aged father (J.K. Simmons) struggles to reconnect with his estranged son (Lou Taylor Pucci) while the young man recovers from a brain tumor that erased all his recent memories; the only thing that can reach him is 1960s counterculture rock music—Buffalo Springfield, the Grateful Dead, etc.—the kind of thing that drove the two apart in the first place. Written by Gwyn Lurie and Gary Marks (from an essay by Oliver Sacks) and directed by Jim Kohlberg, the movie radiates good intentions and bland professionalism without ever becoming as moving or inspiring as it seems to want to be. (Maybe it’s because Lurie has never written, nor Kohlberg directed, anything before.) Anyhow, the performances can’t be faulted, including Cara Seymour as Simmons’ wife and Julia Ormond as Pucci’s therapist.