Watched: September 26, 2013
Rating: 3.9
Duration: 1:42:15
Genre: Drama
“You can’t certainly go wrong with French movies”
French films have the tendency to be existentialist even if the main theme is not about human nature or the overall social condition. In Amelie, we are presented with a protagonist who helps people unconditionally, while trying to also cover her identity. In terms of cinema, the audience don’t often get this kind of altruism movie theme. Undoubtedly, the cinematography of French films captures some of the most beautiful cinematic settings of movies we have watched. If the setting is in Paris, the audience is shown breath taking scenes of Montmartre, of the brick road leading to the busy streets, or of the magnificent Eiffel tower standing in the background
Back to The beat that my heart skipped.
The CONS
There are a lot of things going on so fast so sudden. We try to understand how things are working on the real estate business as shown in the movie, but we are unable to catch up because there are sub plots happening one after the other. Maybe we’re just not familiar with the real estate industry. Or maybe, the movie has had too many jargon and we are unable to grasp some of them. It was not so much impacting to how we appreciate the movie overall, but it does boggle the mind
When Thomas starts playing the piano, we are reminded of this brilliant Chinese movie, Together. It is difficult for a movie to incorporate music, let alone classical music, to the plot. It takes some thoughtful planning on the plot and story line because that classical music must have that gravitated impact to the audience, even for those who are not exactly music lovers. This clever movie-making technique was clearly demonstrated by Together. We were so moved I had to download the Violin soundtrack and add it to my playlist (given that I’m not a classical music lover). TBTMHS has not completely achieved this. We are not moved by the piano solos. We don’t find the classical movement interesting. We feel there is little connection of the music to the character, and of the music to the entirety of the story
The PROS
While not everybody appreciates French films for their serious approach and fondness of realism, we enjoy each movie aspect and feel that this is something that can be adapted by the local movie industry. We won’t say that there’s subtlety employed in this movie, since there are a lot of things going on and happening all of a sudden, it may be difficult for one to catch up. But the complication itself gives this movie the grandness, and the variety gives it the pique in interest
Casting Romain Duris gives this movie its powerful boost. He has the range of varying emotions, and is able to constrain them at the same time. In one scene where the camera focuses directly on his face, we think Duris would explode any moment by the way he tries to constrain the emotions inside, We can clearly see that something is about to explode from within. Oddly, some of the funniest moments in the movie involved Duris and a Chinese character who is his piano tutor. The tutor doesn’t speak French and Thomas (Duris) doesn’t speak Chinese. He cannot possibly learn from this tutor. But we understand that the language of music is universal, and on the last few scenes, we smile heartily to realize that the movie has shown us that music is not the only universal language, butsomething else is
VERDICT: 3.9 rating. Add it to your to-watch list. Doesn’t need to be a fan of classical music to enjoy this movie
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