80
Audiard's work is tense, vivid, and alert, and he's got the right actor as Tom, an irresistibly attractive guy who's pushing thirty yet has no more control over his impulses than a chaotic boy.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
As stylish as it is suspenseful.
60
Stands reasonably well on its own as an urgent, updated genre meditation on nurture vs. nature.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Beat has a moody, furtive quality that jibes perfectly with the perplexed life of a pianist-gangster.
60
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
It lacks "Fingers" searing, explosive vitality.
100
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Audiard's superb remake improves on the original significantly, investing it with aesthetic grandeur and emotional depth.
50
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
As it is, Duris, capable and dull, is no Keitel, 2005 is no 1978, and The Beat That My Heart Skipped is no "Fingers."
80
As tense and taut as any crime saga, but the stakes are more personal.
83
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The Beat That My Heart Skipped lacks the screw-loose existential vibrance of "Fingers," yet it teases out a romantic underside to the original I never quite knew was there.
70
Out of a borrowed and preposterous premise, Audiard has fashioned a film that is more haunting--and more compellingly watchable--than it has any right to be.