As the Oscar race rages on we enter into a period of a lot more character study based movies. It always happens every year, where plot seems to go out of the window for the most part for a month or so and we instead focus on our characters and their lives. I don’t need to note of course that this breeds as many high calibre features as it does lesser so ones. Sound of Metal is however one of the better ones of this year’s crop, taking its time to avoid cliché and zone into a very particular and deeply intriguing notion that hasn’t been told in this exact way before on screen. Cemented by an ensemble of marvellous performances, Sound of Metal is one of the finer films of the year.
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Sound of Metal follows the journey of a heavy metal drummer called Ruben, played in a tour-de-force performance by Riz Ahmed, as he comes to deal and struggle with a rather sudden hearing loss which is only getting worse. The film’s roots are actually quite singular with the central characters and much of the plotting coming from an unfinished docu-drama by Derek Cianfrance, of Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines fame. One of the screenwriters on the project was Sound of Metal writer and director Darius Marder, who reportedly was asked personally by Cianfrance to develop the film once more. The film’s final screenplay is credited also to Abraham Marder and is a wonderful piece of work, subtly crafting believable characters and letting their arcs and journeys flow very naturally and believably, with great humanity and pathos all throughout. Despite this being his directorial debut Marder shows an impeccably clear hand in regards to his directing, the film really is exceptionally well made and brilliantly crafted in the story that it has chosen to tell. In the visual sense the film has a real grit to it that naturally reflects the muddy sound design we get as we come in and out of Ruben’s audio point of view. One really can’t talk about this film without talking about the genuinely exceptional sound design from the team of James Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc and Carlos Corte. As we drift in and out of the different states of hearing that Ruben is experiencing, we feel an unbearable closeness to our character, whereas I do feel that certain films may make these audio choices fee more gimmicky, Sound of Metal really does have a clear grasp in its design of when to utilise the experience of what Ruben is going through and when to allow a scene to be viewed from other perspectives to make the scene play all the more devastatingly in the films beginning.
The films clear strongest asset is in its lead performances. Ahmed is so stellar as Ruben that what again could be a very gimmicky performance preparing for the Oscar clip in every other moment, comes off as delicate and deeply moving. Ahmed’s goal is to tell the story of Ruben in the most truthful way possible, paired with Marder’s clear agreeance in this intention the film builds into a filmicly intriguing and well developed story well told. Olivia Cooke as Ruben’s love interest Lou, does have her moments of quality, but unfortunately was for me the clear unfortunate exception to the great performance rule, with many of her more outlandish outpourings of emotion just coming off as false. The clear standout from the film however is not actually Ahmed, but rather Paul Raci as Joe, a deaf man who runs a camp for those with hearing impairments that Ruben finds himself in. Much of the centre of the film takes place at this camp and with Raci’s Joe. This is the clear best part of the films three act structure of three different locations and states of mind for Ruben. Raci holds such depth of emotion and power in all his scenes that you do really leave remembering him distinctly, whereas certain elements of the film do fade into the background a little. Raci stands alone as a guardian, a carer and a very dimensional character where so many of these type of films just cast a great actor and call it quits with giving that character anything to actually do, other than sit by our lead as they get their tears going for the aforementioned Oscar snippet! Sound of Metal really is a great film that holds its pace and story for its entire running time, so without negatives why I am not giving it a higher grade? I can’t put my finger on it, I reserve those final two points for films that excel beyond them telling their story as well as they could. For me, there must be something more and Sound of Metal has a lot going for it, and does stand aside from many shoddier examples of these sorts of films, however doesn’t have anything to take it above a very, very respectable 8 for me.
A very well made 8/10 bolstered by two immediately seminal performances from Ahmed and Raci, who deliver their characters to the screen with such pathos and effectiveness that the film may very well possibly work with just the two of them. However beyond these two performances is a wealth of quality brought about by Marder’s directing and the script. People often talk despairingly about Oscar bait movies with these sorts of premises, but nobody ever will talk that way about this film, because it is so much more than its premise – it is a well rounded and especially well crafted feature from almost all involved.
P.S. There is the flirted with concept I guess of the whole film being told from Ruben’s audio perspective, completely bringing us into the world of his growing hearing loss. This I think would certainly be a different film without a doubt, and may possibly be a more effective one in some regards, and certainly would only heighten the impact of the final moment we receive.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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