A man finds his heart and soul torn between loyalty to his family and a need to be redeemed from his violent lifestyle in this powerful drama from France. Tom (Romain Duris) is a man in his early thirties who finds himself caught between two very different worlds. Tom loves music, and longs to have a career as a concert pianist; he also has talent, and is taking advanced music lessons from Miao-Lin (Linh Dan Pham). But Tom supports himself working as a collection agent for his father, Robert
(Niels Arestrup), a mid-level gangster and loan shark, as well as helping Sami (Gilles Cohen) and Fabrice (Jonathan Zaccai), two of Robert's cronies who put together crooked real-estate deals. Tom's hair-trigger temper makes it easy for him to adapt to the violent life of a gangster's muscle man, but he wants to give his creative side a chance to grow, and struggles to get his skills in order for an audition with a concert promoter interested in his music. Tom is also walking on a wire with his employers by having an affair with Aline (Aure Atika), Fabrice's wife, and is forced to mediate a bitter feud between his father and a Russian gangster, Minskov (Anton Yakovlev). A remake of James Toback's acclaimed directorial debut, Fingers, The Beat That My Heart Skipped (aka De Battre Mon Coeur S'Est Arrêté) was nominated for the Golden Bear award at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Audiard has wisely avoided the crime-movie clichés of Toback's Fingers, and if his film is not exactly naturalistic, it is steeped in a reality that makes it all the more compelling.
Duris' performance is more finely tuned and less frenetic than Keitel's enjoyably over-the-top job, and the film's emotional chords resonate in more satisfying and complicated ways.
Relying on the enigmatic and sultry charisma of Romain Duris, The Beat My Heart Skipped is a mesmerising portrait of a man torn by two very different sides of his personality.
Much of the 49-minute duration is taken up by the moderator translating the French responses, even though these are also fully (and far more accurately) subtitled on the DVD.
A gritty urban romance that touches on the various fascinating ways that music and psychological states of mind interact or clash in a dissonant and chaotic modern world.
A gritty urban romance that touches on the various fascinating ways that music and psychological states of mind interact or clash in a dissonant and chaotic modern world.
Altogether, Audiard's movie hangs together better than Toback's: it's more coherent in its construction, far less arbitrary in its dialogue, and more plausible and considered in its characterisation.
If not for Duris' amazing, thoroughly captivating performance, it's clear that De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté would not come off nearly as well as it ultimately does.
Simmering study of a petty hood-cum-wannabe pianist succumbing to his innate violent side -- but there might be a touch too much ivory tinkling for some.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a work of authority, maturity and intensity that improves on Toback's original film without appearing to patronise or despise it.
It has been very well made, with the often jumpy photography and scuzzy locales that reflect the nervous energy and predatory nature of its young subject. But it also finds the time to achieve some real emotional depth.
Romain Duris is fantastic here, doing an exceptional work in the composition of his character, with a special care for small details. A compelling, fascinating character study about an unsatisfied man trying to have back his life and follow his dream.
A very entertaining modern film-noir. Audiard is a very capable director and you can clearly spot his admiration and influence for Truffaut and Goddard. It is Romain Duris who steals the show though in a fantastic performance.
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