(2006, 103 min) A concert film is an unlikely candidate for "tearjerker of the year" status, but that's precisely what Jonathan Demme and Neil Young deliver in the bracingly intimate Heart of Gold. A minimal pre-show set-up introduces the band members on the way to Nashville's glorious Ryman Auditorium. It is in this somewhat banal dialogue that we learn that Young is just months removed from having had dangerous surgery to repair a brain aneurysm and losing his father as well. So as the concert opens, with songs off the heartfelt and personal "Prarie Wind" album, the recurring themes of death and loss seem ever more palpable.
Demme gets his cameras close up to all the performers, especially Young, and resists the urge for rhythmic cutting. Young's new material is simple, and the music is somewhat forgettable, but the emotion and delivery are breathtaking. Curiously, as the songs begin to seque into a greatest hits parade (Old Man, Needle and the Damage Done etc.), the performance fades even as the songs become stronger. Yet the themes still shine through and burn deep, all the way through the closing credits and a plaintive solo performance of "The Old Laughing Lady." It all feels like a beautiful elegy for a man who still has many good years left in him, thank God.
© TLA Entertainment Group
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