HEART AND SOUL

Firefighter’s daughter wows ’em at Carnegie Hall, in the third from Mandel (Out of the Blue, 2000, etc.).

Bess Stallone’s distinctly unmusical and resoundingly working-class family prefers Perry Como to much of anything else, and they have no idea she’s a prodigy. Fortunately, a teacher recognizes Bess’s raw talent, and 11-year-old Bess is soon happily banging away on an old upright she dubs “Amadoofus” and dreaming of Julliard. Flash forward several years: her abusive father has been crippled fighting fires and is making his long-suffering family’s life hell. When, after one too many Chopin études, he rises from his wheelchair and takes an axe to poor old Amadoofus, Bess throws herself upon the shattered piano and sobs, but vows that her life at least will go on. Blessed with spectacular cleavage as well as musical talent, she bumps into French piano virtuoso David Montagnier, who’s fascinated by the emotional power of her playing. He teaches her the art of performing, and it’s not long before he and Bess are dazzling audiences all over the world, despite her stage fright. And they fall in love, too, despite David’s mood swings and Beethovenish brooding (no, he’s not deaf—just depressed). Alas, Bess miscarries the baby she longs for, and David plunges into the depths of despair, finally drowning himself in a convenient lake after leaving Bess a final performance of her favorite piece of music, sensitively recorded. Grieving Bess then visits David’s former partner in Europe, who reveals some not exactly compelling secrets about him. Sadder but wiser, Bess looks for solace in the brawny arms of her childhood friend Jake. . . .

Soap opera with a lot of grating Long Island tough talk, all the way from its obnoxious heroine and utterly implausible hero.