Music Within

Variety John Anderson

Helmed by Steve Sawalich, this real-life dramedy is anchored by Michael Sheen’s captivating performance as the severely handicapped, profoundly acerbic Art Honeyman.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Steven Sawalich directed with invention and heart.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Livingston and director Steven Sawalich keep the character in constant motion, his dialogue sprinkled with humor and his energy contagious. The film also is surrounded by a crew of ferociously individualistic characters.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Movies often don't do their stories justice, and that has happened again here. The main problem is a tone that jarringly switches from a kind of Forrest Gump-style narrative to a more generic biopic.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The performances are all solid, but Sheen, last seen as Tony Blair in "The Queen," is so good in his incredibly demanding role that he makes the natural discomfort people feel at seeing someone so debilitated disappear completely.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

As with many biopics, Richard is seen as the perfect hero, a man who singlehandedly changed the way the United States treats its disabled citizens. That's a bit of a stretch.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's everything it ought to be: right-minded, well-intentioned, compassionate. But it doesn't rise above made-for-cable public service announcement, either.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Just remember that its hero stands for countless others.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Starts strong but eventually collapses under its weighty sense of responsibility.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Sheen, like the movie itself, is trying too hard to inspire when the story doesn't need the help.

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

A bad movie with a good heart.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It must have sounded great on paper.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

If it does nothing else, Music Within shows us how deeply Ron Livingston's amiable face can take us into a movie. But even likable mugs like his -- remember him in "Office Space"? -- need help from the movies around them.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

It gives me no pleasure to report that the Pimentel biopic Music Within plays like a well-intentioned TV movie.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

The result is that they never truly find the innate drama in Pimentel's story, instead simply recounting four or five decades' worth of events that shaped the man.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Rarely rises above the level of a TV movie.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The combined efforts of three novice screenwriters fail to give shape to a life that was, although devoted to a noble cause, unexceptional.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Sheen is often the saving grace of Music Within, thanks to an aggressively profane wit that gives an otherwise tapioca-bland story a little edge.