The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

The mere appearance of a few outstandingly talented actors can uplift a film, and even clean up its messes. Antonio Banderas is definitely one of those artistes, but even he was unable to give life back to The Music of Silence.

The Music of Silence is a biopic discussing Andrea Bocelli’s life and rise to stardom. The film tells the story of Amos Bardi (Tony Sebastian), a renaming for Bocelli, as he struggles with losing his sight at the age of ten and achieving his long-life dream of becoming an opera singer. The film has several characters that Amos meets along his journey who each shape his life in some way or form. He meets a beautiful young woman called Elena (Nadir Caselli), falls in love with her and they get married; he meets a major maestro (Antonio Banderas) who becomes the one to really shape and refine his talents. From there, with a few twists and turns, and a little time, Amos makes it to stardom.

The film begins with Amos’ birth, and through the first thirty minutes explores his traits, his struggles, and how he lost his sight. That first quarter is captivating, emotional, and interesting to watch. Unfortunately, after that the film unravels. It slowly sinks into a slow, uneventful mush of useless and removable scenes and sequences; indeed, the plot does not progress in any way. While we do understand that the film has to follow a certain chronological order (it is a biopic after all), we do not understand why it allots too much time to each age period. 

We have to say though that singing in the film was magical, harmonic and intoxicating, especially for opera lovers and even more so for Andrea Bocelli fans. As for the acting, Tony Sebastian did a mostly decent job, but he simply wasn’t outstanding in any way. Nadir Caselli was a bit better. Finally, Antonio Banderas was the true breath of fresh air. While his performance, along with the other characters, was hindered by the choppy lines and messed up plot structure, he still managed to truly breathe life into an otherwise uncolourful character. Unfortunately, his performance alone was not enough to redeem the rest of the film. 

The Music of Silence is not void of potential. It is home to an amazing actor, captivating music and a story that is easy to sympathize with, relate to and love. However, these elements were overshadowed by the messy plot and choppy lines.