Thomas is a small-time hood, son of another small-time hood, who goes around putting rats in houses, beating up people and pushing out squatters as part of his illicit real estate business; but Thomas has another dream, buried deep inside until a chance encounter on a busy Paris street ignites his desires: he wants to be a classical pianist. The film explores the conflicts between his day-to-day job, his problems with his randy father who eventually gets himself in too deep with the much bigger and more brutal gangsters, his business partners, and the young Chinese woman he eventually finds to teach him to play the piano on a level that can get him an audition for his dead mother's former manager.<br /><br />It's based on James' Toback's 27-year-old American film "Fingers" which starred Harvey Keitel and which is much admired; I haven't seen the original but its hard to believe that Keitel was any better in the central role than Romain Duris (a look-alike for a young Daniel Day-Lewis for all you Brit-fanciers out there), who offers brutality, insensitivity and arrogance in most of his daily life, but with an undercurrent of melancholy and self-doubt that makes him one of the most real characters I've seen on screen in a while. I loved the look of the film; it's shot in Paris but you'd never know, it's all close-ups, cramped apartment spaces and dirty night-time streets, no scenery but the emotions on the expressive face of Duris and a few of the other characters.<br /><br />The film doesn't talk down to the audience, something I find very refreshing after a summer of blockbusters...the first few minutes are a bit chaotic and confusing and they mirror the troubled protagonist. I love that, though he seems at times to be making progress out of his unpleasant and violent existence, you're never quite sure...until the spectacular ending, where everything wraps up beautifully...or does it? See for yourself. Best new film I've seen this year.