Like getting upgraded to business when you're sitting down in coach.

I really tried to be a hard ass about this film and I promise I went in with as many preconceptions as possible and I swear I tried to bat away every sneaking suspicion that I was enjoying myself, but in the end there was nothing I could do but surrender to the obvious: Divertimento moved me.

Not to say it was perfect. Every screenwriter knows you're supposed to add conflict to each scene but here it sometimes felt they were just throwing whatever stumbling blocks they could find in front of the protagonist.

There were also a few too many concessions made to convention but the biggest issue I had with the film was its runtime. The story, as inspiring as it was, doesn't deserve 1h50m and the second act especially over-stayed its welcome.

But, and this is a big but (I cannot lie), director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar does a wonderful job getting around the tropes of the underprivileged-girl-shines the she herself created and succeeds in eliciting several moments of genuine emotion.

The cast was overall strong (I suspect a couple of amateur cameos were tossed in like pineapple on a pizza) starting with the lead, Oulaya Amamra (whom I saw recently in Smoking Causes Coughing). Her energy lit up the screen and lifted the film like emotions bouyed on a swelling soundtrack.

Another notable performance was that of Niels Arestrup, who plays an ageing conductor ready to mentor this diamond in the rough.

I've already spent more words than I can afford on this charming little film, but what kind of critic would I be if I didn't end my review with a bad pun, something along the lines of "In this film about a female conductor from the wrong side of the tracks, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar plays a grand symphony on our heart strings."