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Competition (1980)
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Movie Review by E
March 14th, 2009
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Still unavailable on DVD, this film was recommended to me by my employer after I mentioned I had purchased an entry-level keyboard recently. Though the VHS format for the most part has been liquidated from our Family Video stores, I was able to locate the one remaining VHS copy of THE COMPETITION in one of our stores in Wisconsin. Though some rental wear-and-tear was apparent, the viewing experience was better than I anticipated, and the film itself is an entertaining romantic drama sure to please classical music devotees.
The storyline marks the end of the "Me decade" as our nation was transitioning to Cold War era anxieties and insecurities. After being awarded third place in a piano competition in Cincinnati, discouraged piano prodigy Paul Dietrich (Richard Dreyfuss) suspects the time has come to abandon any hope of establishing a concert career and accept the only consolation prize: becoming a music teacher. However, upon observing the uninspiring classroom environment, Dietrich decides to compete in San Francisco, where a prestigious international event is worth $20,000 to the winner and, more importantly, guarantees a future on center stage. Though he is distracted easily at times, Dietrich's talent places him among the six finalists, including Tatjana (Vicki Kriegler), a talented young woman from Kazakhstan, Jerry, (Joseph Cali) a Brooklyn native in search of an identity, Michael (Ty Henderson), who enjoys practicing scales in the buff, a bland nerd named Mark (Adam Stern), and, most notably, Heidi Schoonover (Amy Irving), the protégé of pompous but respected instructor Greta Vandemann (Lee Remick in a scene-stealing turn), herself a gifted pianist from a long line of piano training that connects back to Beethoven.
Having gotten acquainted with him at a prior contest, Schoonover is attracted to her rival Dietrich, who does his best to repress his feelings for her and concentrate on his last chance at a first-place finish (in five months his age will make him ineligible for such competitions). After various attempts to brush her off, the two find it impossible to avoid each other. But the competition must play out, and Dietrich must either win or resign himself to a teaching career. And if Schoonover places higher, can he commit himself to a woman who has proven her musical superiority? The film's ending has been criticized widely; but only Woody Allen may have handled it differently.
The always interesting Dreyfuss is the film's strong suit, even if he seems a bit miscast at times. He pulls off some terrific moments, especially when he puts the pretentious conductor Andrew (Sam Wanamaker) in his place for conducting Beethoven "wrong 200 times." Irving is enchanting as always, and her "piano acting" of Prokofiev is a bit more convincing than anything Dreyfuss is able to muster up (his first keyboard close-up is alarmingly phony). Writer/director Joel Oliansky keeps the pre-competition events appealing, and allows occasional doses of humor to punctuate the dramatics of this likable love story. Interestingly, IMDB reports that ABC cut the film by 31 minutes for its 1985 network television debut. Let's hope someone has the good sense to give a little love to whatever remains of the source material and release THE COMPETITION on home video in an anamorphic transfer loyal to the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
--Eric Somer, 3/14/2009
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 | BillyBob
Mar 15, 2009 2:10 AM
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Hi E -
I've never found Dreyfuss to be very convincing whenever he played the Romantic Lead in a film.
Interesting profile photo you got there. |
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