-Written by John Cajio.
Ari’s Theme is a feature-length documentary that mostly does not suck. This documentary is one in which the viewer needs to tough it out for the first half hour or so, after which it picks up steam and pushes to an overall satisfying conclusion. Some unusual editing and narrative choices end up holding the film back.
Ari’s Theme tells the story of aspiring music composer Ari Kinarthy. Ari suffers from skeletal muscular atrophy type 2, a terribly debilitating disease that has left him bound to a wheelchair for most of his life. Doctors claimed he would struggle to make it past his eighteenth birthday. He is now in his mid-thirties, composing away via MIDI, with dreams of having real musicians play and record his music.
There is an irony to this documentary. A musical theme is a musical idea, oftentimes used to symbolically represent something concrete. For example, legendary composer John Williams wrote musical themes specifically to represent various characters in the Star Wars films (e.g., Luke’s Theme, Leia’s Theme, etc.). The most successful themes are typically those that are part of a broader piece of music where it is supported by a variety of other compositional work. Continuing with the Star Wars example, Luke’s Theme in isolation is already pretty terrific, but when it is adequately supported by appropriate music underneath it begins to take off, and when it effectively combines and weaves with other major thematic material to create a brilliant aural tapestry… well, that’s when awesome musical magic really happens. In the case of Ari’s Theme, it spends so much time focused on Ari’s thoughts and Ari’s feelings—on his theme, if you will—that it seems to forget, at times, the folks that helped get him to where he is. And I wanted to learn more about them and the ways that they helped him, and struggled with him, and celebrated with him, and lamented with him.
We learn plenty about Ari and his motivations. He absolutely dominates the proceedings. It was the supporting cast that I wanted to learn more about: his mother and father, of whom we see plenty of archival footage but only one or two modern day clips; his music therapist, Allan, who clearly takes on a familial role to Ari and enabled him to actually start composing the themes Ari was hearing in his head, but the evolution of that relationship is not explored or is explored in an wholly inadequate fashion here; the Viennese composer, Johannes Winkler, who takes on something of a mentor role and helps organize the recording session that represents the culmination of Ari’s dream. And then there’s the complete mystery of Ari’s sister, seen in a lot of archival footage, but never mentioned in any contemporary setting by Ari or his parents in their brief contemporary appearances. She hovers in the background of the documentary like a specter because her contemporary absence after appearing in old childhood home videos is never addressed in any way. Was there a falling out between her and the rest of the family? Did she just not want to appear in the documentary (which is her right and which the filmmakers could address with a simple statement to that fact)? Did some tragedy befall her, preventing her contemporary appearance? The answer to all of these questions is: who knows?
In the end, Ari’s Theme would have benefited greatly from more attention being paid to the supporting cast.
There are a few things that Ari’s Theme did very well. A brilliant editing choice was for the music to start out as MIDI, representing the beginning of Ari’s journey into composition via digital audio workshops like Cubase and Logic Pro, and then shift slowly to recorded music after Ari links up with Viennese composer, Johannes. The few scenes in which Ari’s parents appear are emotionally charged.
A good musical theme is well supported by a variety of underlying harmonies and rhythms. A great musical theme is not just well supported by a variety of underlying harmonies and rhythms, but it also manages to weave in and out of the musical texture in unexpected and inspired ways. Ari’s Theme strives to be the latter but has to settle for the former at best.
Directed by Nathan Drillot & Jeff Lee Petry.
Written by Nathan Drillot, Jeff Lee Petry, & Ari Kinarthy.
Starring Ari Kinarthy, etc.
5/10 = WORTH WATCHING, BUT YOU’VE BEEN WARNED
