The High Note (2020)

User Review

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  d_riptide

  7 / 10

  I wanted to get a lot more out of “The High Note” than what it essentially delivered but I tend to focus more on what could’ve been rather than what I got and what I got was far from unacceptable. It was exactly what I expected it to be and I can’t say much more than that. Acting is solid all around with the cinematography, sound design and editing following a similar suit to that. I could live with some of the dialogue if I don’t think too hard on it and as conventional and predicable as this story is, sometimes it did surprise me with moments of subversion I genuinely did not expect and overall it’s heart is firmly in the right place for its love of music and how surprisingly entertaining the story still ends up being. The movie does have trouble deciding whether or not if it's a behind-the-music-industry drama or a go-for-your-dream fairy tale however but by the time it does decide what it wants to be, it doesn’t necessarily matter. Also, it misses out on the opportunity to discuss potentially thorny topics like the class divide between Maggie and Grace and especially the personal struggle Grace has to endure to get her social standing as stable as possible; stuff like that could’ve elevated the experience a LOT more.⁣
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  As a rom-com and a drama, it’s far from the most proficient one out there but it’s It's leisurely-paced, relatively grounded, has a decent balance between substance and style (in whichever originality was allowed here) and rooted in the specific pleasures of watching good actors play nice people who deal with their specific conflicts as nicely as possible. It’s somewhat in peaceful harmony.⁣

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