Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind

Dr. Alvaro Cruz is one of the leading sources on Alzheimer's disease. When his mother succumbs to it while he is away at a conference, he can barely live with himself. Sleep escapes him, the alcohol flows ... until one day on the streets of New Orleans, he witnesses an elderly woman named Una Vida (Aunjanue Ellis) singing. In her song, he recognizes signs of Alzheimer's – forgotten words, forgotten phrases. But he is captivated by her voice and her story. He resolves to help her, to care for her.

Along the way, he encounters resistance from her surrogate daughter, Jessica (Ruth Negga), and his wife, Angela (Sharon Lawrence). Jessica doesn't want to stop caring for her mother; Angela isn't sure why her husband has taken on rescuing a random woman as a hobby and worries about his mental health. But their resistance doesn't define "Una Vida." Rather, the resistance melts away in the face of Cruz's compassion and love for Una Vida. It's a movie about hope, love and making a life in the face of the cruel inevitable.

In movies about disease, it is easy for a character to become nothing more than their ailment. In "Una Vida," no character is boiled down to just a disease or a token role. As the plot of the movie progresses, we learn more about Una Vida's life and past. We see her at her worst, but also at her best. When she hears music, something returns to her, at least for a second. Eventually Cruz and Jessica locate her long-lost son, and help him reconnect with her. She doesn't recognize him; it doesn't matter. When he starts to play her music, she feels it. And we feel it, too.

The music of "Una Vida" is a standout. It's integrated naturally into the movie, in a way that other movies don't quite manage. Never manipulative, always additive. Well worth watching.