The Music Never Stopped
Directed by	Jim Kohlberg
Produced by	Neal Moritz
Written by	Gwyn Lurie Gary Marks
Based on	The Last Hippie by Oliver Sacks
Starring	J.K. Simmons Julia Ormond Mía Maestro Lou Taylor Pucci
Music by	Paul Cantelon
Cinematography	Stephen Kazmierski
Edited by	Keith Reamer
Production companies	Essential Pictures Mr. Tamborine Man
Distributed by	Roadside Attractions
Release date	January 20, 2011 (2011-01-20) (Sundance Film Festival) March 18, 2011 (2011-03-18) (United States)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$150,515[1]

The Music Never Stopped is a 2011 American drama film directed by Jim Kohlberg, who makes his directorial debut from a script by Gwyn Lurie and Gary Marks.

It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and was given a limited release in the US on March 18, 2011.

Plot

Based on Oliver Sacks' essay The Last Hippie, the film tells the father-son relationship between Henry Sawyer (J.K. Simmons) and his son, Gabriel (Lou Taylor Pucci), who suffers from anterograde amnesia as the result of a brain tumor. Henry, with his son unable to shed light on their strained relationship, must connect with him through music.

Cast

• J.K. Simmons as Henry Sawyer
• Julia Ormond as Dianne Daley
• Mía Maestro as Celia
• Lou Taylor Pucci as Gabriel Sawyer
• Tammy Blanchard as Tamara
• Cara Seymour as Helen Sawyer
• Scott Adsit as Doctor Biscow
• Max Antisell as Young Gabriel Sawyer

Release

Critical response

The film currently holds a 67% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 49 reviews.^[2] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe remarked the film was "one to remember", also calling it "sentimental, yet so honest and eccentric that it rises above schmaltz".^[3] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club compared the film's story to The King's Speech, giving praise to J.K. Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci and calling the film a "powerful, even shattering look at music's power to unite where it once divided".^[4]