Sound of Metal is a stunningly crafted character-driven drama that is incredibly performed and emotional.
Sound of Metal is directed by Darius Marder and centers on a young heavy metal drummer, Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed), whose world is completely changed overnight due to him rapidly losing his sense of hearing. We see his difficult journey of having to come to terms with the fact that his hearing will never return and he will never truly be able to go back to the thing that brought him joy in his life. He has to adapt to a completely different lifestyle and culture, language, and community.
Sound of Metal, from almost start to finish, is simply brilliant. From its lead actor, Riz Ahmed, who has a career defining performance that will surely make him a worthy candidate during awards season, to the direction of Darius Marder that allows you to fully immerse yourself in the life of this character and puts you right in his shoes. It’s difficult for a filmmaker to give the audience a sense of what the protagonist is experiencing when it comes to subject matter like this, but the use of the sound design is excellent and fills you with the same feelings that Ruben is going through. Much of the film lacks a soundtrack, so we are experiencing everything completely through the lens of this character that is learning to adapt to this new lifestyle.
Ruben is taken to a deaf community where he has to learn sign language and how to communicate in a way that he has never had to before in his life. When he begins this process, he is hesitant and frustrated. The supporting deaf characters communicate amongst themselves in sign language, but we as the audience don’t have subtitles because Ruben doesn’t understand them either. As he goes on and allows himself to learn this new lifestyle, he begins to understand those around him and we are then granted the subtitles. There is a brilliant scene towards the beginning of the film between Ruben and the community founder, Joe (Paul Raci), where we are essentially seeing two forms of communication taking place on screen: Ruben reading the words that Joe is saying through a teleprompter, and Joe who is understanding Ruben by reading his lips.
Throughout the film, Ruben, who is also a recovering addict, is put in a dark state of mind and has to learn to cope with the immense change that he is going through. His girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke), was his anchor throughout his rehabilitation, but this is a journey he has to go on alone and we see the consequences that this has on both characters. We go along with Ruben’s journey of acceptance and realization that what he has now, in the words of Joe, is not a disability but just a different way of living. It’s great how the film relates the themes of addiction and reverting back to the things that bring us a sense of happiness to Ruben and his struggle of coming to terms with the change in his life but wanting to revert back to what brought him joy, which was his music. His character arc is one that feels fulfilled and leaves you satisfied by the time the credits roll with an ending that is unexpected but feels right for the film.