I think Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) could be any of us in the working class. Stuck in two worlds about what he really wants to do, versus what he has to do. In the shady corner of the real estate business relying on underhand tactics, he finds no joy. In the other world which presented itself as an opportunity to start again, he must upgrade in order to be accepted. It never is easy, then again, life never is to begin with.
Constantly frustrated at his predicament, you begin to wonder towards which characteristics of his parents would he gravitate to - the father, who's about to remarry, and is living the life that Thomas secret disapproves, and that he fears he's subconsciously becoming his father's son, or his deceased mom, an accomplished pianist. Given the chance to dig deep into his potential of following in his mom's footsteps, he thought he could find joy in emulating his mother's success, but success always is the outcome of hard work, and plenty of frustrations along the way.
With the help of a Chinese pianist (played by Linh Dan Pham), he sets himself a goal to be ready for an audition to set a new future for himself, and the classical music numbers greatly contrasts with Thomas' choice of Euro-techno music which he plays over his beautiful earphones, and I enjoyed prior to watching the movie, thanks to a friend who introduced me to Telepopmusik's Just Breathe, which was used.
While juggling between real work, and his potential aspiration, things go awry with his love and sex life, when he falls for one of his friend's wife, and when his dad gets mixed up with and swindled by Russian gangsters. I particularly liked the scene where he sought out the Russian Minskov, where he goes about without a clue to try and straighten things out with the mobster, only to have him call and threaten him loudly over the phone, in the sudden presence of a passer-by. And what he did for revenge, was totally comical too, in context.
There are moments in this film which painfully brings out themes of frustration, of being lost at a crossroads, and of deciding for oneself what your calling is. Decide for yourself if you're up for some serious fare about the choices presented in life, and about that leap of faith that you take in trying to achieve some of those goals.
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