Film Review of Sound Of Metal by Darius Marder: Life and Facing Oneself

Sound of Metal was directed by Darius Marder, starring Riz Ahmed as the main character, who both are not quite well-known in the film industry. Therefore, I didn't have much expectation before I started watching the film, although it received much acclamation at that time . However, it was critically acclaimed and has received many nominations. Doing some research, I found out that it is the second film Marder directed and his debut film was not quite well known so I was quite surprised about his achievement. Below is a simple review of the movie.

The story is quite simple. A drummer Ruben (starring Riz Ahmed) travels with his girlfriend Lou (starring Olivia Cooke) in a van and performs rock music from states to states. One day, Ruben suddenly lost his hearing and was not able to afford the cochlear implant. He then has to live with a deaf supporting community run by Joe (starring Paul Raci) as he may be a drug addict again. Lou had to leave him as the community only accepts deaf people. Ruben's life changed totally.

What happens to Ruben demonstrates what life is. We are always caught in a predicament suddenly without any prior warning and we run out of solutions to solve the problem. If Ruben were rich enough, he might immediately undergo the implant and continue his tour with Lou. Although Ruben was reluctant to live in the community, he later slowly adapted to life in the community. He started to learn sign language, chat with other deaf people and even teach the deaf children there playing drum. However, he missed Lou a lot so he sold all his belonging and undertook the surgery. He later reunited with Lou but discovered that their relationship was no longer the same as before. Ruben thought everything would be the same again after his hearing was back but the sound he could hear after the implant was heavily distorted. And Lou was not the Lou he knew before. 

That is life, we have to accept things are changing and all the happiness is just a period of time that will pass eventually.

Sound of Metal also talks about addicts and facing our own selves. Ruben was a drug addict before and became clean after developed a relationship with Lou, and also probably the gigs performing realigned his focus from drug and became his meaning of life. Therefore, after losing his hearing, Ruben was afraid of his breakdown and found community support for him. In the community, deafness is not something to be fixed and it is the mindset of people needed to be fixed, as Joe said to Ruben:

"You should understand that, uh, this is a Deaf community, not just my program, but we're part of a larger Deaf community, and my program and the people in it, they benefit tremendously from that Deaf community. We work with them, and they work with us. But, it's very important, if you want to be here, to understand we're looking for a solution to, to this [points at forehead], not this [points at ears], but this [points at head]. "

Joe subsequently invited Ruben to spend a morning alone and write down anything he had in mind during that period. While Ruben was thinking such act was meaningless, he later could spend the time alone quietly reflecting his life.  Just as Joe said before Ruben left:

"Have you had any moments of stillness? Because you’re right, Ruben. The world does keep moving, and it can be a damn cruel place. But for me, those moments of stillness. That place, that’s the kingdom of god. And that place will never abandon you."

Ruben learned to live with himself alone in this quiet lonely time.

The performance of Paul Raci, as a supporting actor, is quite impressive. He showed calmness through the film even discovering Ruben secretly undertook the implant, only with a trail of sadness in his eye, that seems to be he has seen too much in life and understands it. And this calmness was the result of the character Joe spending time alone with himself throughout his life. Not to mention Paul's fluent using sign language throughout the film which you would believe he is a deaf person. I later found out that Paul grew up with deaf people and had addiction issues after serving in Vietnam, no wonder he demonstrated what the character should have in the film. 

Rating: 4/5