"Playing with Beethoven" tells the story of Josh (Aric Floyd) and Charlotte (Naomi Druskic), two pianists at an unnamed conservatory who are on the brink of a competition that offers a world tour (apparently with parents in tow) as a reward. Charlotte has a secret agenda, but not to worry, everything will be fine in the end because it's that kind of movie. The kind where a character has to apologize for a mild swear word that's in everyday use (the only one in the entire film). The kind where you can see everything coming a mile away, because the director (who also wrote, produced, and edited) can't resist bashing you in the face with every plot development. The kind where an African-American lead has to have an absentee father, and the best explanation the screenwriter can come up for an actress' accent is to suggest first that it's learned from the grandparent who raised the orphaned family (never mind that her older sister is accent-free) and then that it's just a put-on. The kind where all sorts of important events just happen to occur on the same night.
Floyd is a competent actor; the rest of the cast not so much. And the implausiblities just keep coming, from the leads tooling dozens of miles around town on a BMX bicycle to breaking into a theater where Charlotte's friends are rehearsing with a famous conductor (apparently it never occurred to anyone to walk through the front door that everybody else uses). At one point Josh, who is presented as a classical pianist through and through, suddenly displays a gift for flawless jazz improvisation--apparently Beethoven takes serious practice but jazz just comes to everyone without effort.
On top of all that, the pianos (all blatantly product-placed by K. Kawai) are so badly tuned that they wouldn't be out of place in a honky-tonk Western. This is supposed to be a serious music conservatory! The Kawai company ought to sue the producers for defamation.
Floyd is a competent actor; the rest of the cast not so much. And the implausiblities just keep coming, from the leads tooling dozens of miles around town on a BMX bicycle to breaking into a theater where Charlotte's friends are rehearsing with a famous conductor (apparently it never occurred to anyone to walk through the front door that everybody else uses). At one point Josh, who is presented as a classical pianist through and through, suddenly displays a gift for flawless jazz improvisation--apparently Beethoven takes serious practice but jazz just comes to everyone without effort.
On top of all that, the pianos (all blatantly product-placed by K. Kawai) are so badly tuned that they wouldn't be out of place in a honky-tonk Western. This is supposed to be a serious music conservatory! The Kawai company ought to sue the producers for defamation.