Review: The Concert

Review: The Concert

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 58%

The Concert is the story of a former conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, Andrey, who was fired during the Soviet regime for hiring Jewish and Roma musicians. All this occurred 30 years before the action of the film. In the post-Soviet Russia of the movie, he's the janitor of the Bolshoi. One day he intercepts a request from Paris inviting the orchestra to play there. Andrey decides to gather his former musicians and take them to Paris to give the concert. He also requests that Anne-Marie Jacquet, a stellar young musician whose star is on the rise, play a concerto with the orchestra.

Pulling this all together is easier said than done -- and that's exactly where my problem with this movie resides. There is an unevenness of tone in the film that is jarring. It is at times melodramatic, at times romantic, at times tragic, and at times like watching a Three Stooges short. The broad portrayal of hyper-emotional Russian stereotypes was distracting and unnecessary. Quite a few critics have noted that, as flawed as the film is, the emotionally satisfying ending makes up for all its sins. I wish I could agree. This movie just didn't work for me at all. I'm thinking about watching Ninotchka as an anecdote.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it