remake of a 1978 james toback film and finger and in which harvey keitel play a crook who aspire to be a concert pianist . in beat and tom seyr ( romain duris ) be also a thug . he deal in low end apartment house real estate and which frequently require him to chase out tenant who would otherwise stay indefinitely under tough parisian eviction rule . he and his buddy release rat into building and bash window and toilet with baseball bat and and otherwise terrorize renter into beat hasty retreat to assure the success of impend building sale . and tom try to keep in touch with his dissolute widower father robert ( niels arestrup ) and who be also a nefarious wheeler dealer . tom more cultured late mother and we can surmise and keep these two guy from descend into the gutter and while she be alive ( we never meet her there be no flashback in this film ) . she have be a successful concert pianist before her death a few year earlier and and tom himself learn piano under her influence . now and his chance meeting with her former manager result in an invitation to audition . but he 28 and and though he still noodles around on his piano at home and he hasn not practice seriously for 10 year . still and he feel a pull to follow in his mother footstep and make something good of his life . so he find a teacher a recent immigrant from beijing and miao lin ( linh dan pham ) who school him uncompromisingly to prepare for the audition . the resolution of this story be at once both inevitable and surprising and but the film turn on duris energetic and cat like and springy presence in virtually every scene . he forever on the move and and with his short fuse and inscrutably smug little smile and one never quite know what he will do next . just that it will be quick and decisive . for anyone even peripherally familiar with musical performance and it require an unacceptable level of suspension of disbelief to think that this musical slacker could within just week polish his chop to a soloist level of proficiency . the thought of it be pure nonsense . duris be interest enough to watch and but i be disappoint in this film and and not because of the absurdity of the conceit about musical performance . my hope go in be high because of jacques audiard earlier highly suspenseful film and read my lip ( 2001 ) and a self make hero ( 1996 ) . i think that the male lead in those two film and vincent cassel and mattieu kassovitz and respectively and be both more intriguing than duris be here . for that matter and if you want my nominee for the most tightly wound and electrify male performer of the year and it isn not romain duris and it the turkish german actor and birol ünel and who play cahit in the astonishing film and head on . ( in french and english and mandarin and russian ) . my rating represent positive ( b ) . ( see on 09/05/05 ) . if you would like to read more of my review and send me a message for direction to my website .