This movie has been designated a Critic's Pick by the film reviewers 
of The Times.

Time revises every taste and closes every gap. To observe the 
Young @ Heart chorus, a fluctuating group of about two dozen singers 
whose average age is 80, perform 'Stayin' Alive' by the Bee Gees in 
Stephen Walker's documentary ' Young @ Heart' is to be uplifted, if 
slightly unsettled.

Sung by people approaching the end of their lives, the song is no 
longer about strutting through the urban jungle with your elbows out; 
it is a blunt survival anthem. These singers, most of them well-
rehearsed amateurs, refuse to go gently into that good night. For them 
music is oxygen.

When they perform punk classics like 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' by 
the Clash or 'I Wanna Be Sedated' by the Ramones, the notion of a 
generation gap begins to crumble. Apart from the rebellious attitude 
behind the songs' creation, these are elementary meat-and-potatoes 
tunes: 'Sing Along With Mitch' material but with a hip credential.

The Clash song is a lusty group cheer, which, interpreted by people of 
advanced age, could be taken as a stubborn assertion of choosing life 
over death. 'I Wanna Be Sedated,' an extremely catchy song any way you 
look at it, comes across as an ironic refusal to follow a doctor's 
orders and lie back in a medicated haze. Members who suffer from 
chronic multiple ailments are shown struggling out of sickbeds to 
attend rehearsals.

At moments the movie, made for British television, risks being a 
cloying, rose-colored study of happy old folks at play, and the cheer 
sounds forced. But the lives of the several members it examines at 
some depth are too real and complicated to resemble a commercial 
starring Wilford Brimley as a Norman Rockwell grandpa. The movie 
offers an encouraging vision of old age in which the depression 
commonly associated with decrepitude is held at bay by music making, 
camaraderie and a sense of humor.

Since its beginnings as a collective arts project in 1982 at a center 
for the elderly in Northampton, Mass., the chorus has developed into a 
popular local ensemble with an international reputation. It has made 
12 tours of Australia, Europe and Canada and serenaded Norwegian 
royalty. Accompanying the singers is a solid core of professional rock 
musicians who help ground their sometimes wavering voices.

Sandwiched into the movie are several surreal music videos made by the 
film's producer, Sally George. The wittiest, created around 'Road to 
Nowhere' by Talking Heads, depicts singers happily stranded on the 
side of an American highway.

The movie concentrates on the rigorous two-month preparations for a 
2006 concert at the Academy Theater in Northampton. Guided by the 
chorus's demanding longtime director, Bob Cilman, the members are 
learning new material, including 'Yes We Can Can,' the Allen Toussaint 
hit for the Pointer Sisters, whose lyrics repeat 'can' 71 times in 
intricate, staccato patterns; Sonic Youth's enigmatic, equally 
demanding 'Schizophrenia'; and the Coldplay ballad 'Fix You.'

The fact that the chorus's members are willing to tackle such daunting 
material attests to the spirit of adventure that is a crucial spur to 
their shared bonhomie. More than one member admits that his or her 
favorite music is classical, opera or show tunes. These rock songs are 
unfamiliar. Instead of comfortable walks around the block, rehearsals 
(there are three a week) are demanding hikes over hilly terrain. The 
challenge only makes it more exciting.

Late during the making of 'Young @ Heart ' two members of the chorus, Bob 
Salvini and Joe Benoit, died within a week. Although neither death was 
a complete surprise, occurring so close together, they come as shock 
to a group dedicated to living in the present as fully and exuberantly 
as possible. The upbeat realism of everyone connected with 
Young @ Heart' might be summarized in six words: Life goes on until it 
doesn't.

'Young @ Heart ' is rated PG (Parental Guidance suggested). It includes 
some strong language. - Opens on Wednesday in New York and Los 
Angeles. Directed by Stephen Walker; director of photography, Eddie 
Marritz; edited by Chris King; produced by Sally George; released by 
Fox Searchlight Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes.