Alive Inside: A Story Of Music And Memory Movie Review

The American documentary movie Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory hit the screens in 2014. Michael Rossato-Bennett directed and produced the movie. The film had a premiere in Film Festival. It won the Audience Award for best US documentary. The movie deals with the Alzheimer’s disease. Dan Cohen is a social activist. He runs a nonprofit program Music and Memory. He stands as an evangelist for music therapy to help people suffering from dementia.

Director Rossatto-Bennett has the knack of using cinema to throw light on Dan Cohen’s introspection and serendipity. The movie lets know people that the nursing homes, in fact, evolved from the impoverished families. Later such nursing homes turned places of refuge for the old who are ditched by their families. Medical care does not entirely help the patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It just tones down their aggression. Dan Cohen wants to tackle the patients differently.

He gifted iPods to the patients that had their favorite music in it. The story line of the whole film seems to be split. One, the movie tries to focus on how music helps Alzheimer’s patients via a neurological process. Another, the movie wants a more reformed medical system for the elderly. But the movie has made an emotional leap such that it will be remembered for quite some time. The movie has a frank and direct manner of storytelling. There are interviews with experts including Oliver Sacks. There are graphics aplenty in the movie to make audiences understand the movie better.

The movie has the power in it to grasp the audience’s attention. There are some drawbacks in the movie. There is a lot to be covered, feels the director. Resultantly, the story seems to have been messed up a little. The focus shifts between the message that music subdues Alzheimer’s and that the medical industry needs something better to deal with the demented. The movie tries to reveal the sad plight of demented patients and ill-treatment meted out to them. The director is a debutant one. The filmmakers did not wish upon making a masterpiece, but an evangelist documentary. The movie is worth watching for awareness about Alzheimer’s disease, resultant dementia, and repercussions in life.