Hearts Beat Loud

Not much happens in That’s sort of the point. When it sets up a moment that in another movie might build to a thrilling, triumphant climax, it smiles sweetly, shrugs, and lets it go.

Director Brett Haley gives us a tartly sentimental slice of a couple of lives headed, if not exactly in opposite directions, then in different ones. Frank (Nick Offerman of is a widowed father raising a precocious daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons, Sam is studious and motivated, and she’s planning to head off to UCLA in the fall for a pre-med program. Frank is going nowhere. He owns a vinyl record store in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which is nearing the end of its 17-year run. His landlady (Toni Colette) is understanding and flexible, as befits a possible romantic interest, but business is business, and Frank can’t pay the rent.

He’s got other problems as well. His lovely mother (Blythe Danner) is showing signs of dementia and indulges in a little shoplifting. He relieves the pressure with the occasional drink and talk at the neighborhood bar run by his pal Dave (Ted Danson).

Frank is a case of agreeably arrested development. He’s a talented musician — he and Sam’s mother were in a band together, but she died and he moved into the selling of records instead of the making of them. He appreciates his daughter’s academic seriousness, but he doesn’t encourage it — he’s the adolescent saying “come out and play,” she’s the adult with a sense of responsibility.

But one evening he wheedles her into joining him for a jam session. She’s a terrific singer-songwriter, and they make a recording of a song they’ve written (the title song). When he listens to it the next morning, he uploads it to Spotify (the modern equivalent, for you old-timers, of sending a demo to a radio DJ) and lo and behold, it takes off — on a modest scale.

Frank has dreams of getting back into the game. A few offers drift in. He wants Sam to put UCLA on hold and tour for a year. She is focused on her medical career. Her summer romance, a sweetly innocent lesbian affair with a school friend (Sacha Lane) is probably going to be another casualty of her relocation to Southern California.

What makes it all work is the simple, unaffected pace Haley gives it, and the appealing, lived-in performances from the whole cast. The music (by Keegan Dewitt) is solid, and the story manages to steer clear of maudlin. — Jonathan Richards