Abraxas -- Sundance 2011

Abraxas is nearly a disappointment, however, the last few minutes of this movie made it all worthwhile. Call me crazy, but I expect a movie about music to have a little bit more music than this did.
This story of a speed punk front man turned Buddhist monk and family man, is in Judeo-Christian phrasing, about making "a joyful noise unto the lord." Unfortunately, I do not know the proper phrase in the Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition.
You can read the catalog listing here. But in brief, Jonen, the previously mentioned monk, has a break down at career day at the high school which sends him into a deepening depression. He realizes that, as he did in his own high school days (20 years earlier), he never wants the music to stop. He approaches is superior at the monastery and his wife and says that he wants to sing again. His superior is understanding, his wife not so much. He also has the support of a friend who didn't know him back in the day.
The setting is about the only thing that separates this movie from other music comeback stories that easily come to mind. I was also not enamored of the things that we, the audience, were assumed to understand about Jonen's relationships with the people in his town, though this could be a problem of subtitles. Despite this, and the slow pace, the movie is beautiful and well acted.
Midlife crises happen. Promises are revoked and broken, and the damage to them is forgiven. The world is challenged. Death occurs at inconvenient times. Leonard Cohen is sung in Japanese.
This isn't a movie I liked a lot right away, but it is growing on me even at two hours out.