Heart of Gold

Even if you didn't grow up playing "Cinnamon Girl" 185 times a day on the stereo, like me, chances are excellent you'll be moved by the Neil Young concert film, Heart Of Gold. Director Jonathan Demme proved with his Talking Heads film, Stop Making Sense, that the best way to make a music documentary is to shut up, and let the music do the talking. And the music is the message in Heart Of Gold; it captures Young in an eloquently reflective mode after a confluence of circumstances—including surgery for a potentially fatal brain aneurysm, and the death of his father—led him to write the songs on his acclaimed 2005 Prairie Wind album. A few months later, Young presented the world premiere of the Prairie Wind songs at two concerts in Nashville at the historic Ryman Theater, longtime home of the Grand Ole Opry. These are the concerts Demme shot for the film, in which Young surrounds himself with a family of knockout musicians who have worked with him for decades (including songbird Emmylou Harris), as well as horns, strings, and a gospel choir. Young likes to take his studio musicians on the road, and it pays off in the quality and texture of the sound onstage. But it's the content, not the firepower, that makes Young's new material and the film so rewarding, wistful songs about the long hard road of the past, the inevitable passage of time, the miracle of friends and family, and the dream of life—even as it's "fading away." Young's plaintive vocals are always clear and compelling, and songs like "Falling Off The Face Of The Earth" and "It's A Dream" are heartbreaking in their simplicity. Also seeded into the concert are earlier Young songs in a similar mood, including an almost chilling rendition of "The Old Laughing Lady" solo, on a bare stage in the empty hall over the closing credits. This is a vivid portrait of a grown-up artist looking backwards and forwards without fear.

(***1/2) (PG) 103 minutes.
published in Good Times, Feb. 23, 2006