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Seniors rock in documentary

Whether 8 or 108, there is no substitute for enthusiasm. It is the spoon that stirs the pot, keeping us engaged and youthful in spirit.

Witness the Young@Heart Chorus, a New England troupe of singing seniors, average age 84, that has delighted global audiences with their covers of songs by a wide range of unlikely artists: the Clash to Coldplay, Sonic Youth to Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen to James Brown, Wilson Pickett to Jimi Hendrix.

Based in Northampton, Mass., the group is made up of two dozen seniors who specialize in reinterpreting rock, punk and R&B standards from a rather oblique perspective. The lineup includes retired executives, physicians, schoolteachers and food service workers, all whipped into shape by the loving but tough taskmaster that is Music Director Bob Cilman.

Documentary director Stephen Walker leads the applause in the touching, funny and inspiring film "Young@Heart."

The members may not always like the lyrics (or the volume) of the music that Cilman and his band select for them to master, but they usually warm to each piece in the end, especially after standing ovations from appreciative concert-goers.

And the thing is, they rock. Some of them can sing up a storm.

Much of the film focuses on a period of two months, during which the chorus prepares for a gig at a prison and a one-night-only concert in their hometown. They struggle with the sometimes convoluted lyrics (as with Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can") and with melodies that are strikingly unfamiliar to an age group devoted to classical music, show tunes and opera.

But during their three-a-week rehearsals, these folks fearlessly take possession of the music as best they can, putting paid to long-held assumptions about age, love, sex and death.

Some of the featured players we meet, and admire, do die during the course of filming. It's a tight unit that feels the pain of their passing more than most, and not simply because it's a reminder of their own mortality. It is because these friends were valued.

There are so many ways that this documentary might have gone wrong. But in depicting the joys and sorrows, hard work and rewards of the group, Walker refuses to give us an overdose of easy sentimentality. What we do get are brief but affecting profiles of individuals, not the kind of condescension that (with the best of intentions) tends to reduce seniors to cute and adorable relics we regard like children.

And no, before you ask, they do not perform an update of the Herman's Hermits hit as "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Walker," or a redo of the Ringo Starr tune tagged "I Get By With a Little Help From Depends." No cheap or obvious jokes.

Though there is much laughter in the picture, the movie is not played for laughs. It's made to demonstrate that passions can grow and deepen to the very end of life, whenever it comes. And that the wisest of us savors every minute.

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.

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