I love this movie so much

Sadly Over-hyped

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Just start the movie, I know how it will end. It is a movie full of typical characters, the characters are drawn as by fifteen year old who make their first scripts.It is very long and the worst of all is that then it solves everything in two minutes, do not stop for so much film. If it were that the character is in progression could understand it but it is not progression, does not advance and then blow is another.The actors are fine that true. Although I do not think the casting is very well done, if we had a friend like that and he told us what happens to him in the movie, we would not believe him.The photograph of the film, if it exists, is too white. It is very French, no information.The address, telling me that I have become long, does not advance, only knows how to make close-ups, does not know how to narrate or compose, let's say I do not like it.In short, it is not what I expected, but I will soon forget it

A brief conversation (at the beginning of this movie) about the added responsibilities that can be thrust upon a son when the father is no longer able to cope as well as he had in the past, flags up a situation that has a strong bearing on the drama that follows. The son's loyalty makes him committed to looking after his father but also makes him feel trapped and then, when a passion from his past re-emerges (in this case, an ambition to be a classical pianist), it causes conflict within him as he tries to decide which way to go in his life and also causes conflict with his father who disapproves of his ambition.Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) is a 28-year-old Parisian real estate broker who works with his partners on property deals involving run-down apartments which they buy and sell off at a profit. Their work often involves forcefully removing squatters, immigrants and even legitimate tenants that they want to evict in order to facilitate another sale. Where the people involved show any reluctance to move, various tactics, such as releasing rats into their homes or smashing their windows with baseball bats are used to change their minds. Thomas' involvement in this type of work and his propensity for violence are the results of his father's influence. Robert Seyr (Niels Arestrup) has a long history as a slumlord and has, for many years, used his son to collect unpaid rent by any means necessary.Thomas' mother, who'd died some years earlier, had been a concert pianist and he's pleasantly surprised one night when he unexpectedly meets Mr Fox (Sandy Whitelaw), who'd been her manager. Fox remembers the promise that Thomas had shown as a classical pianist and offers him the opportunity of an audition. This sparks an enthusiastic response in Thomas who, after a long period of neglect, becomes determined to improve his piano skills. After being introduced to Chinese piano virtuoso Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) who's a newly arrived immigrant in France, he hires her as his tutor. Despite her inability to speak French, they soon develop a rapport and Thomas works obsessively to be successful in his new endeavour, which he knows can lead him to a better and more fulfilling life.Thomas' new obsession causes problems with his business partners because he can't keep up with all his commitments to them and similarly, because his father is no longer able to handle the trouble he gets himself into as a result of his shady dealings, Thomas is increasingly called upon to sort his problems out as well. As a result of these conflicting pressures, Thomas fails his audition. However, a way then presents itself for him to achieve the better life he wanted through classical music, albeit by a different route than he'd originally planned.This movie's direction, cinematography and script are all conspicuously top class and Romain Duris' performance is exceptional. His explosive volatility when he's playing the thug, his understated interactions with Miao Lin and his unrestrained distress in anther key scene are just some examples of the power and range of his acting. The characters in this story are all particularly well-drawn with Niels Arestrup standing out among the supporting cast with his portrayal of Thomas' crude, overweight father who hasn't got the good judgement to know when the time has come for him to get out of his particular line of work. "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" is well-paced, violent and more affecting than many people might expect.

"From Jacques Audiard, the acclaimed filmmaker," notes the DVD sleeve, "comes this haunting new thriller that fuses two unlikely worlds to create a stunning portrait of a young gangster. Romain Duris, in a standout performance, plays Tom, a 28-year-old who seems destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a Parisian property shark working in a sleazy and sometimes brutal world. However, a chance encounter with his late mother's music agent leads him to believe that he can become, like his mother, a concert pianist. In earnest, he starts preparing for the audition with the help of a beautiful, young virtuoso pianist who has just arrived from China. She doesn't speak a word of French; music is their only exchange. But pressures from the ugly world of his day job become more than he can handle…" Strange how this film has found its way into my hands before the original, US-made "Fingers" (1978), starring Harvey Keitel; more often, the American re-make of a French film predominates. Probably, the reason is that Mr. Audiard's version was immediately acclaimed as the latest work from a superior director. Re-titled "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" for English readers, this is a nicely performed character-driven crime drama. Twitching and quivering, Mr. Duris is especially memorable as the unhappy degenerate who yearns for respectability through musicianship. Unfortunately, the "shaky camera" technique gets out of hand sometimes, distracting during a couple of scenes; mostly, the wobbling stays in the realm of a sway or bounce - even when the characters are not, of course. C'est la vie.******* De battre mon coeur s'est arrete (2/17/05) Jacques Audiard ~ Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Linh-Dan Pham, Aure Atika

With the huge success of his A Prophet as last year became this, it's worth a detour through Jacques Audiard's back catalogue. The cryptically titled The Beat My Heart Skipped concerns come of the same themes that made A Prophet a tense - and epic - cinematic tale. Romain Duris is a temperamental young wheeler-dealer in Parisian real estate, fluent, if not happy with the murky aspects of his trade. Serendipity produces a remarkable plot diversion: offered an audition by a former piano teacher, he begins lessons with a Chinese girl who speaks no French, and finds the process emancipates him from the tawdriness of his day-to-day.Naturally the drama builds as the civilising effect of his extracurricular pursuit and that very job come into conflict. I liked the way in which Audiard managed this though. I also liked the way in which he dealt with the pianism within the film. This is a notoriously tricky area, introducing music or sport, events which have their own inherent drama. The non-Francophone teacher is a brilliant conceit in this respect - since we do not understand the Chinese (non subtitles) the drama moves from dialogue about the piano to the physicality of the exchanges between the characters.Of course, so much more revolves about this - like El Djebena, much of the drama comes from expecting Thomas to drop one of the many balls he's juggling - women, providing alibis for adulterous friends, the fractious relationship with his passée-thug father. A nice selection of supporting roles, from the wonderful Niels Arestrup as said dead-beat papa to the echt Parisian beauty Aure Atika as Aline maintain the verisimilitude easily enough. This is Duris' picture though. He performs with such a convincing equivocation that there is no second- guessing the script and we feel sympathy even in his foolhardiness and violence. A very good, if (also characteristically) rather pessimistic film. 7/10