The Beat that my Heart Skipped is a beautiful film.<br /><br />Thomas Seyr is a property dealer. A broker. A fast talker. A fixer. He and his two partners encourage sellers to sell cheap. Encouragement includes releasing rats into the property at night or the liberal use of baseball bats.<br /><br />But this is a beautiful film.<br /><br />Mr Shady Adrenalin-Rush Seyr has a past. Not a bad past - more of a silver lining that accidentally gets uncovered. Like his mother, he used to play piano. A twist of circumstances has him suddenly realising he has a chance to be a pianist and he takes lessons to prepare for an audition. An audio flashback has his teacher telling him, "The emotion is not very generous" and at the same time the film slips into a minor key as our emotional involvement with the character kicks in.<br /><br />Playing piano interferes with Thomas' being a total bastard, much to the annoyance of his colleagues who don't want him pussyfooting around with such a silly hobby, but the audience and Thomas sense a soul struggling to shine through his shitty persona and the amphetamine paced timeframe stops the movie from going gooilly sentimental. More formula as we see him at the piano naked from the waist up after making love, flattering lighting, Chopin, Debussy, Bach and Mozart. Sensuousness and arty mix. Electro moves to classical. The Beat that My Heart Skipped carefully pushes all the right buttons, but still seems fresh given French naturalistic acting, an unpredictable storyline, great soundtrack, and being entertaining and funny. A remake of an American movie with Harvey Keitel, it stands up quite well even if lacking in substance.<br /><br />Thomas perhaps eventually finds what his heart missed, though not quite as predicted.