An elderly piano teacher in a women's prison discovers a student of hers, jailed for murder, is a musical prodigy. Give that to Judi Dench and Halle Berry and watch the Oscars roll in...Instead, we're in something like the real world, and there's scant promise of the rise of a heartwarming phoenix spreading her wings from the flames. The relationship etched out between damaged teacher and damaged pupil flickers but holds out no hope of blossoming. Both characters are quite simply too abrasively and self-destructively unlikeable for this. And all the more compelling for it: when their guards slip, even a little, it's worth all the more.
This is no little gem of a film: it's far too rough-hewn with its intermingling of stock plot elements with notes of real pathos. But Monica Bleibtreu's and Hannah Herzsprung's entirely credible performances as teacher and ward, glued together by musical performances that for once reinforce the characters, rather than merely carrying the film forward, make for reward enough.
7/10
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