The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)

The conflicting ambitions of fathers and sons are taken to a primal extreme in The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005). A young man is conflicted by whether to follow in his father’s gangster footsteps or chase his dream of becoming a concert pianist. By day, the dutiful scion beats down his old man’s opposition, squeezes late payments out of unsavory chiselers, and, on general principle, stomps on the hand that feeds both him and dear dad. Also by day, the heartless enforcer pours every once of sensitivity and passion into rehearsing for his chance to debut as a celebrated pianist. Obviously a string of sour notes will be the music faced by papa and son.