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Together

Xiaochun gets to know one of his violin teachers, a reclusive, cat-loving genius.

FILM FACTS

Starring: Tang Yun and Liu Peiqi
Director: Chen Kaige
Rating: PG for sexual references
Genre: Drama, Foreign
Language: In Chinese with subtitles

Discuss this film | Official movie site

See showtimes (PG) 116 minutes

Grade: C

Verdict: Never really gets its act together.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If it weren't for the subtitles and the Chinese pedigree, "Together," an embarrassingly sentimental tale of a Chinese violin prodigy and his supportive dad, would be laughed off the screen. As is, the most interesting thing about it is how director Chen Kaige Easternizes Western clichés like the fat-cat businessman and the hooker with a heart of guess what.

Thirteen-year-old Xiaochun (Tang Yun, a real-life prodigy) lives in a provincial town with his middle-aged father, Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi), a peasant who cooks in a local restaurant. Liu Cheng feels his son is destined for bigger things than playing a lively tune in the local hospital to ease a difficult childbirth. So they travel to Beijing where Xiaochun is aced out of admission to a prestigious music academy because of internal politics (read -- a bribe, which one of the judges calls a "targeted contribution").

Liu Cheng isn't deterred. He sets up Xiaochun with two teachers. One (Wang Zhiwen) is an eccentric, reclusive, cat-loving genius who lives in a filthy hovel. He teaches Xiaochun to play from his heart. The other, played by the director, is a well-known maestro who lives in a sleek home with his sleek wife. He teaches the boy how to play for the right people (soulful vs. sell-out . . . get it?). Either way, Liu Cheng is increasingly excluded from his son's life.

Director Chen has been typically associated with epic-sized films, like "Farewell My Concubine" and "The Emperor and the Assassin." Perhaps he isn't comfortable working on a more intimate scale. Or perhaps he just isn't good at it. Still, he could have done something to give the characters more complexity or to rework the Chaplin-esque heart-tugging. (There's even a party à la "The Gold Rush" where the invitee doesn't show.)

Tang has a beautiful face, endearing Harry Potter bangs, and he plays the violin wonderfully. But he's a non-professional; he can't really act and his opaqueness creates a hole in the center of the movie. As his dad, Liu is much better, bringing some good physical humor to his essentially one-note country-bumpkin character.

The best work is done by Chen himself. He knows who this man is -- a compromised artist who, instead of making music his life, has used music to make a life that's very comfortable. It's too bad he didn't apply the same nuance and subtlety to the whole film. The classical soundtrack is lovely, as is the travel-brochure cinematography. But underneath the exotic gloss, it's still the same old song MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer sold us in the 1940s.