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A squad of sharply drawn outcast vets

By TOM MEEK | October 24, 2007

3.0 Stars

MUSIC WITHIN: Suicide, stints in Vietnam, and a genius with cerebral palsy.

Richard Pimentel (Ron Livingston) has a lot put upon him: born to an interracial couple (his dad was Chinese) in the ’40s, he’s “the eighth miscarriage that lived,” and on each of the others’ “birthdays,” Richard’s mom (Rebecca De Mornay) has a cake and attempts suicide. That’s just the prologue to Steven Sawalich’s sharp bio-pic about a man who establishes an employment agency for the handicapped and crusades for diversity training. Later, a stint in Vietnam costs Richard most of his hearing and ends his aspirations of becoming a public speaker. Then in college he meets Art (Michael Sheen, Tony Blair in The Queen), a genius with cerebral palsy. Richard can make out Art’s caustic musings (inaudible to most), and Art turns impromptu interpreter, C-3PO to his R2-D2. Together, with a squad of outcast vets, they fire up their “stick it to the man” attitude and shake the tree of intolerance.

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