Movie Review: 'The Sound of Metal'

The Sound of Metal has a premise unlike any other I can recall seeing in a mainstream feature. The film stars Riz Ahmed as a man who loses his hearing. He goes from being a heavy metal drummer to being almost completely deaf in a matter of days and it is a harrowing tale. This would be traumatizing for just about anyone but a musician losing their hearing suddenly and without warning, the trauma is almost unimaginable.

Riz Ahmed stars in The Sound of Metal as Rubin. Alongside his lead singer and guitarist girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke), Rubin is beginning to find real success in the music industry. The two have a loving and comfortable relationship that lives peacefully within a tour bus, a converted motorhome that now doubles as a home and a studio. You can sense that Rubin and Lou could be happy in this scenario for the rest of their lives.

That’s when it happens. As Rubin is loading in for a gig he starts to have tinnitus, that ringing in your ears that so many of us are familiar with. Then the ringing subsides but is replaced by a near inability to hear anything. Rubin manages to get through the gig by some miracle, mostly because his band’s music appears to involve a lot of random noise and screaming, and the following day, he sneaks away to see a doctor.

The doctor informs Rubin that his hearing loss is permanent. There is a surgical option but it is expensive and it will not restore his hearing as he remembers it. Rubin’s condition is exacerbated by the fact that he is an addict, a former drug user who is now three years sober. Lou immediately worries that Rubin may relapse due to the trauma of his hearing loss and immediately calls Rubin’s sponsor who happens to have a good idea.

In a tiny corner of the northwest there is a school operated by a Vietnam veteran named Joe (Paul Raci). Joe lost his hearing during the war and has since dedicated himself to helping addicts specifically deal with hearing loss. Joe has created a sanctuary where those without hearing can get help for both addiction and hearing loss. It’s a perfect spot for Rubin although it means he must be apart from Lou. The program requires her to leave and for Rubin to be isolated so that he can get well and learn how to adjust to hearing loss.

I will leave you to discover where the story goes from there. Safe to say that the outcome of The Sound of Metal is not predictable. First time director Darius Marder has chosen a unique subject, one so unique that I cannot recall having an entire movie built around it. Deafness is not a subject that Hollywood movies have tackled in a big way in quite some time. The Sound of Metal takes the topic head on and tells a moving and dramatic story.

It’s difficult to imagine what hearing loss is like if you’ve never experienced it firsthand. The Sound of Metal and star Riz Ahmed appear to do quite a good job at presenting the hardships of such a sudden diagnosis and how to overcome it. The Sound of Metal is raw and honest about how someone might react and it’s not always the most inspiring reaction. Rubin immediately wants to settle for surgery, a controversial measure in the deaf community. Whether or not he eventually goes for the surgery is a big part of how The Sound of Metal plays out.

The Sound of Metal is complex, moody, moving and beautiful. This is a very humane story filled with flawed characters growing and failing and finding their way forward as best they can in a strange and challenging environment. Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke are a lovely central couple but the relationship to watch is between Rubin and Joe. The father and son bond they develop provides the emotion that drives the film to the final act which you must discover for yourself.

The Sound of Metal is romantic, thoughtful, sad, and compelling and one of my favorite movies of 2020.