'Young@Heart': Geriatric singers rock out

Geriatric singers in "Young@Heart' don't just perform "I Feel Good' they live it

By Roger Moore The Orlando Sentinel

Young@Heart is nothing less than an ode to joy. Stephen Walker's British TV documentary about American octogenarians singing in a chorus manipulates, sure. It pushes familiar buttons. Still, it's a deft blend of the sweetly sublime and the patently ridiculous.

And what a chorus! Young@Heart is a group of 24 seriously senior citizens from Northampton, Mass., whose ”Have I got a gimmick for you“ director, Bob Cilman, moved them away from show tunes and into the music of Jimi Hendrix, The Boss, James Brown, Sonic Youth and Coldplay. They've toured Europe and have become a regional phenomenon back in New England.

They're very old. Some shake when they hold their sheet ­music. Any absence from rehearsal is a cause for concern. Some are real singers; most aren't.

But from the moment that London-born Eileen Hall, 92, blurts that memorable punk line ”Darling, you've got to let me know. Should I stay or should I go?“ Young@Heart has us. It's the novelty of the unfamiliar settings of familiar pop and rock that makes us laugh. And it's the seriousness with which these seniors treat the songs (well, sometimes), their late-life ”fame“ and their determination to live until you die, right up to the very end, that inspires.

The film, which Walker narrates, lets us listen to Stan and Dora butcher — over and over again — I Feel Good, complete with James Brown's shouts; treats us to music-video performances of Staying Alive; and brings down the house with Eileen, the eldest and easily the funniest member of this choral cast.

The laughs are huge, with covers of I Wanna be Sedated, and the endless rehearsals of Yes We Can Can — the singers have to remember ”71 "cans,'“ Walker tells us — as highlights.

But halfway in, mortality rears its head. When your singers are often in their 80s, you change members for the saddest reasons.

Don't try to keep a dry eye during a revealing, heartbreaking inter­pretation of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U. You won't be able to. Just bring your hankie and let go.

And just try to keep from tapping your feet along to the songs of Talking Heads and David Bowie as you've never heard them before. It's not filmmaking or flashy technique that makes a great documentary; it's the subject. And Young@Heart, from the corny name to the show-stopping encores, is just that — great.