By its very premise, this at first seems to be the latest entry in the genre about artists who physically and mentally sacrifice for their art. Fortunately this film actually outgrows the initial premise and is a much better film for it. I was also very pleased to note that its very nuanced portrayal of the deaf community in that I don’t think it always shows them in the best light. I don’t think the heavy metal community is happy about the film however and in truth despite the title this has nothing to do with heavy metal at all.
Ruben is a drummer who travels around in an RV with his singer girlfriend Lou as a heavy metal performing duo. One day he notices that his hearing is deteriorating but tries to hide it and puts off taking any action. Eventually a doctor tells him to avoid exposure to all loud noises and says that an expensive implant is the only way to regain any hearing. Lou is worried about Ruben especially as he is a former heroin addict and so they enroll him in a church-funded program to teach the deaf how to cope with deafness and learn sign language. However the shelter insists on Ruben being cut off from the outside world while he stays there so Lou has to leave. Ruben is resistant at first to joining the community and feels ill at ease with a silent world. But as time passes he becomes proficient in sign language and even joins in to help teach others. However he still dreams of getting back with Lou eventually.
As I noted, the title and the premise are a bit of a red herring as while Ruben is obviously a competent musician and this is how he makes his living, he doesn’t seem to be especially passionate about it. As my wife notes, his primary motivation is his love for Lou and his fear of losing her. He certainly realizes that without the ability to hear, he has no hope of being with Lou or going back to his previous life. The central tension in this film is therefore not about the music at all but about Ruben learning to give up on hearing for good as the shelter is focused on teaching him and the others who stay there to come to terms with deafness. Ruben sees his deafness as a problem that can be simply solved by having the money to install the implant and it seems disingenuous of the film to skip the parts in which the doctors certainly would have tempered his expectations that an implant would fully restore his hearing to what it was before. The film does do a great job at showing Ruben navigating this transition and how the shelter works well at integrating the deaf into a loving and mutually supporting community.
I am a little confused at the plot. If the lack of money is the main problem, why didn’t Ruben just sell the RV right at the beginning? Nonetheless, I do like how this shows a more complete picture of the deaf community than one might expect. Joe’s shelter for the deaf unquestionably does work at getting those new to deafness to learn sign language and to understand that life goes on once they accept the fact of being deaf. But it also shows that the cost is near total isolation from the non-deaf community. Once Ruben gets the implant, Joe cuts him off completely and I understand that this is a real thing that happens in the deaf community. They believe that actively trying to improve hearing ability is contrary to their teaching that deafness is normal and should not be regarded as a handicap. I think it should be a both instead of an either/or choice so the implant should be seen as a supplement to enable the deaf to still interact with the rest of society but cannot entirely supplant the need for sign language. The film tries to be kind to the deaf community but to me it doesn’t entirely paint them in a good light and I’m especially irked by Joe characterizing Ruben’s behavior as that of an addict when the only thing that he is addicted to is perhaps his old relationship with Lou.
On balance this is a strong film that I liked a lot more than I expected. I certainly sympathize with Ruben much more than I do for artists and performers who sacrifice their minds and their bodies for the sake of their art, as I thought this film would be about originally. The relationship with Ruben and Lou is handled perfectly and I loved how the film mostly developed without the need for much dialogue at all. It’s proof of how familiar they are and much they love one another that they don’t need words at all. This one gets a strong recommendation from me.