'The High Note': Movie Review

THE HIGH NOTE is an average movie about an aspiring music producer who works as an assistant for a famous diva in Los Angeles. THE HIGH NOTE has a strong Romantic worldview stressing following your dreams even when the odds don’t look promising, with some moral elements, and also includes lots of foul language and a mention of heroin abuse. Extreme caution advised.

The movie opens with Maggie as she runs errands for her employer, a famous middle-aged singer named Grace Davis. Grace’s manager (played by Ice Cube) tries to convince her that a Vegas residency is the next step in her career. Grace and Maggie disagree. Without Grace knowing, Maggie makes a new cut of some of her songs that Grace allows Maggie to produce.

Meanwhile, Maggie runs errands for Grace at the grocery store, where she bumps into an aspiring recording artist named David, who happens to share her knack for classic rock. David invites Maggie to a party later that week. At the party, Maggie learns just how talented David is. Later, she attends one of his small-time shows.

Maggie convinces David he’s good enough to put out a record, and she’ll produce it. There’s only one hiccup: she doesn’t tell David she’s only a measly assistant.

David and Maggie continue to operate professionally under the radar and catch romantic feelings for one another along the way. At the same time, Grace hustles her way to release a new album and needs an opener for her release party, which Maggie needs to figure how to book for the event.

Can she keep living this double life?

THE HIGH NOTE is reminiscent of the recent comedy LATE NIGHT or the 2006 movie THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA where a young woman tries to appease her employer as the employer feels insecure about aging out of their respective business. THE HIGH NOTE has a great cast but distracts, ironically, with sound mixing. In some scenes, the music is too loud, and the dialogue is too soft. On a positive note, however, the story has a pretty good twist at the end.