Tired Cliches skipped in “The Beat That My Heart Skipped”
(2005, French W/ Subtitles)
“The Beat That My Heart Skipped” imagines that its hero can be saved by music. It’s a romantic notion that is gradually and deftly introduced. Tom Seyr, our young Parisian protagonist, is a product of the “Breathless” era French hero. He smokes, he carouses, he lives semi-legally, and he does it with panache familiar to the French film lead first introduced during the “New Wave”. It all seems fun.
Then we find out, not so much. In actuality, Tom is drowning, following in the footsteps of his broken down father, a ridiculous looking man who corners his son into making violent monetary collections on his own sharkish real estate dealings. And that’s what Tom does too. He and his two partners release rats and baseball bats into slum apartments and broker deals when the residents are forced out. In a way, Tom is the odd man out with his partners; he chafes at being the patsy for his partner Sami to cheat on his beautiful wife, but perhaps that is because Tom happens to be madly in love with her. While it is obvious she and Tom will rende vu, the outcome of the affair is not.
Then chance steps in. On his way home from a violent act, he suddenly pulls over. He spots a man, he talks to him. It seems this man was his late mother’s music agent. The man mentions that Tom could play and hands him a card, asks him to play for him. Tom goes home and digs out recordings of his late mother playing the piano. It seems she was a concert pianist and that Tom had a talent for a time too, but has long stopped playing. But now, in the middle of the night, unhappy with his life, something is reawakened in him and he plays. He finds a virtuoso Chinese woman who speaks no French to tutor him, and he prepares for an audition with his late mother’s agent. His other life; that of his father and his violent friends, frowns upon his sudden piano aspirations. The subject of his late mother does not go well with his father. And so Tom will face a choice.
“The Beat that my Heart Skipped” is a dramatic character study. There is nothing spectacular about the way the film looks or feels, but it does remain authentic. What makes the film stand out is the way in which it reveals the facts of the story. A twist or turn is not heavily dramatized, but only presented for the viewer to accept. The fact that Tom’s mother is dead, was a concert pianist, and that he once played as well comes out of nowhere, reminding me of the way Jack Nicholson’s character was revealed to be what he actually was in Bob Raefelson’s “Five Easy Pieces.”
“The Beat that my heart Skipped” is by no means as good of a film as “Five Easy Pieces” but it has in common with that American classic a sense of respect for the viewer to follow the plot as it evolves with out shoving it down their throat. And that’s what I liked about the film. The acting is solid, the characters are three dimensional, and the plot is not quite as you would think it to be. There are choices and revelations, and more incidents of chance. And there is a fatalism to the plot.
As Tom grows more and more serious about his playing, his father pushes him deeper into harm’s way with his own problems. It’s a race between alternatives familiar to the motion picture plot, but in this intelligent film, if Tom’s salvation can only come from becoming a concert pianist like his mother, does he really have a chance? He once was promising, but now hasn’t played in ten years, thus his chase, realistically, seems futile. Where it ends up is not where you think it would-you can’t say that for a lot of movies.
Story: B
A character study that evolves realistically, without heavy strings at every dramatic turn. The characters seem real.
Acting: B
Strong all around, subtle.
Visuals: B-
Satisfying photographed with a loose, often handheld style, at times too familiar.
Originality/Innovation: B
Only in the way the plot is revealed.
Enjoyability Grade: B
Overall Grade: B
A solid film, I will look for writer/director Jacques Audiard’s other efforts.
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