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Ruben (Rhiz Ahmed) was the drummer for his own punk band called Blackgammon, which he formed with his girlfriend and vocalist Lou (Olivia Cooke). One morning Rubén suddenly felt the hearing in both ears become muffled and unclear. After performing audiometric tests, her doctor advised her that both ears suffered from sensorineural hearing loss and that she should avoid noisy activities to preserve her remaining hearing.
Aware of his concert schedules, Ruben denied his condition and continued to play drums that night. Any remaining ears in his ears disappeared completely. Rubén could never get over his anger, he only progressed to anger. Lou took Ruben to a place run by Joe (Paul Raci) that aimed to help deaf people accept their disability and integrate into their new normal life. It was not easy for Rubén to fit into Joe’s system of discipline.
This film co-written and directed by Darius Marder (in his film debut as a director) attempts to put the viewer in the hearing experience of deaf people. Your soundtrack is supposed to be how deaf people hear or not hear the sounds around them. The sound became muffled and annoying at first, and this would eventually progress rapidly to absolute silence and be disorienting and terrifying. This mix of sound and sound was the most remarkable aspect of this film and should be in a serious contest for technical awards.
In a remarkable performance, Rhiz Ahmed became Ruben: a tattooed ex-junkie, a rock musician, a rebel, a hedonist. Unlike Joe and his other deaf housemates, Ruben was someone who can’t just accept this big life change sitting down. While she did eventually learn to sign and interact with other deaf people, she still very much wanted to be in the noisy world she came from. Despite the restrictions, he was willing to do whatever he could to get those cochlear implants that he believed could get him back there.
In my regular job as an otolaryngologist, I meet people with various stages of hearing loss. I try to help them in my limited capacity as they try to cope with the loss of one of their vital senses. I can only imagine the devastating impact of this disability on their lives, especially for those who suddenly lost their hearing. I cannot know or feel exactly what they are going through as they struggle to communicate every day. I have a brief sample of that difficulty as I try to speak to them during their consultation. What else about the people who live with them at home?
This movie may not be perfect. It had a very slow pace. Ruben’s character isn’t exactly nice. There was a false sense of calm in the way Ruben was able to have his cochlear implant surgery performed, as it is definitely not such a quick process.
However, this movie impacted me in a different way as a professional working with patients with hearing loss. It brought me to a deaf community and how they want to live a life where the deaf is not a disability. It made me aware of how the technology we advise them on may or may not help them. This immersive approach to life as a deaf person is a valuable lesson in empathy.
This review was originally published on the author’s blog, “Fred Said”.
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