{image1}Parisian fella Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) is being pulled in two directions and that conflict is what fuels the new film, "The Beat That My Heart Skipped," directed and co-written by Jacques Audiard ("Venus Beauty Institute," "Read My Lips").
The 28-year-old Seyr works, as he says, in "real estate." The son of a thuggish landlord, Thomas and his two partners now work dirty real estate deals and do more than a little bone-breaking to collect rent, eject squatters and generally deal with problems.
But Seyr's now-dead mother was a successful concert pianist -- which makes one wonder why she had anything to do with his dad in the first place -- and a chance encounter with her former manager rekindles Thomas' love of the piano, which he studied as a young man.
So, between his shady deals and his covering for his partner, who is cheating on his wife Aline (Aure Atika) -- which only makes Thomas angry -- Thomas signs on with Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham), a recently arrived Chinese piano virtuoso, so that she can rate his skills.
In no time, he's taking lessons from her, despite the fact that they don't speak the same language, and his passion for the piano impresses her and her patience with him helps him overcome his frustrations.
But as his big audition with his mom's former manager approaches, Thomas' piano playing begins to interfere with his daily "real estate" business, causing no shortage of problems with his partners.
Other developments will further anger at least one of those partners.
"The Beat That My Heart Skipped" is a schizophrenic film, and that perfectly serves the script, which is built on the duality of Seyr's double life. And Audiard and his fellow writers are to be commended for avoiding at least one potentially predictable romantic liaison; it must have been a temptation difficult to avoid.
Duris has a tough road trying to be convincing both as a thug and dirty dealer and as a sensitive pianist, but he pulls it off well and Atika comes alive in the second half of the picture after having little more than a bit part early on.
In capturing two sides of Thomas, "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" evokes the complexity of the human animal and its no less complex heart.
"The Beat That My Heart Skipped" opens Friday, Sept. 30 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
