Review of Heartless (2010) by Chriss M — 07 Jan 2012

Heartless is on the whole well performed, and surprisingly, it's very stylishly directed. It's almost painful to rate it quite so poorly considering how many elements of the movie are sort-of quite brilliant.

Heartless is a dark psychological thriller centered around a troubled young Londer called Jamie (played by Jim Sturgess). Jamie lives with his mom and works with his brother and nephew. Jamie's deeply depressed and suicidal due to the birthmark that scars his face. On one of Jamie's nightly walks with his camera- he's an avid photographer, like his deceased dad- he discovers a group of trouble making, screeching hoodies, the same hoodie that he had captured in an eerie photograph a few days before. After his curiosity gets the better of him, he finds a group of these hoodies huddled around a drumcan fire. But, of course, they realise his presence and walk toward him; when they reach him, Jamie realises these aren't normal hoodies, but actually some sort of demonic CGI faced monsters. These demons eventually kill Jamie's mother in a vicious molotov cocktail attack, which sends Jamie into a violent depression.

In the meantime, Jamie's nephew (played by Luke Treadaway) has involved himself in a bit of financial bother of the drug sort. And as the news broadcasts, which are littered throughout the movie as background noise, let us know, there have been increasingly brutal attacks in the London area as of late. Seems to be that they were perpetrated by this demon gang.

But back to the present. Jamie continues to wollow in his melancholy until he receives a mysterious text on his now deceased friend's mobile phone- yeah, he met a friend during all of this, who was then also killed by this gang- this text leads him to an old flat which is coloured a vibrant green- so already you can tell something isn't quite right. Anyways, inside is a young Asian girl dressed in what I assume to be traditional Indian wares, and also a very theatrically dressed man with a menacing air about him. Blah blah blah, they go on quite pretentiously, until finally Jamie is offered a Faustian pact: for the price of some grafitti, this fellow 'Papa B' will remove the birthmark which has destroyed Jamie's life. Jamie accepts, and in a baptism of fire he is reborn as the handsome young man he always wanted to be. But of course, he was tricked. In actual fact, Jamie is required to perform a brutal murder, which he does, in order to sustain his new found beauty.

Oh, by the way, by this point, Jamie has found himself a girlfriend- a model that worked for his uncle. So anyway, everything between him and his girlfriend is going great until 'Papa B' wants more blood, as he's grown jealous of the relationship Jamie has developed with his assistant- the girl in traditional dress, Jamie's befriended her. This time he wants the blood of Jamie's new girlfriend, however, things eventually transpire, etc, etc, then there's a fairly good twist, then a fairly bad twist and Jamie dies. The end.

The fairly good twist involves Jamie's nephew and his girlfriend, but it's irrelevant to the themes that have been hammered throughout the film and is there purely for narrative, it simply ties the plot together- quite well though, I may add. The second twist however, is much more interesting and I'll explore in a moment.

See, the underlying themes of the film are actually quite interesting, of which there are two: the sociological; and the psychological.

The sociological meaning underpinning the film attempts to make the comparison between these gang members and how we, as a society, tend to see them as alien to ourselves. Monsters. That we think of them as entirely detached from our society and think they're beyond human intervention. Solidifying this is Jamie's Faustian pact with Papa B. This could be seen as the 'deal with the devil' many gang members are forced to make when they join a gang- that of family and protection for brutality and murder.

To me, the first half of the film that displayed Jamie's psyche was much more interesting; that of Jamie's loneliness and his desire to just be.The cinematography, the pace, the tone, it all crafted a really nice piece, which is a bit sad, because in it's place the director has decided upon a trite conclusion.

The final twist of the film reveals Jamie to be a schizophrenic, it's never actually said, but it's quite obvious enough. Once upon a time this was a smart narrative twist, but by now it's just hackneyed and cliche. Another movie that uses many of the stylistic elements of this film is Gerald McMorrow's Franklyn: in Franklyn the schizophrenia diagnosis is fallen back on to explain what we've been seeing and bring it back to reality. In my opinion Franklyn does this better, as it was less predictable than in Heartless. You see, half way through Heartless this all becomes relatively obvious. The director was not as talented at blending the fragments into the story, instead they're sharp and they poke you right in the eye; it's hard to miss what's going on when it's constantly being pointed out to you.

This crudeness is the main problem with Heartless. The film is rough. Packed with great ideas and, had the film pulled it off, stunning style. Unfortunately, Heartless can't deliver on what it offers. You see, for all the well-enough written dialgoue, it just doesn't translate on to the screen. The rushed relationships between the characters don't convince. The plot is wholly predictable halfway through and some of the acting just destroys any sort of suspension of disbelief you have in place.

But the worst problem, the thing that really made a brilliant film just good was the change of tone between the first half of the movie and the second half. The first half of the film focuses mostly on Jamie's melancholy and depression, with some really beautiful scenes of him walking around London at night, encountering the city life he feels he can never be a part of; making his first real friendship, and the barrier he has erected between himself and others. The direction really makes the viewer feel this with his great cinematography, shots and composition.

The indie feel is sadly lost to the fantasy and horror of the second half- another crude element is the CGI of the movie, it really drags the viewer out of the film. Then later, Ridley has Jamie commit a fairly greusome act- which he also uses to inject some dark humour (it fails)- but still he expects the viewer to fully sympathise with Jamie. Luckily enough, the soundtrack is pretty consistent throughout the film and it sets the mood.

So that's that for Heartless. An enjoyable movie with something to say, but by no means faultless. Something I can happily say about the film, in conclusion, is that is has restored my faith in the British indie film scene. These films have a unique appeal that no other country can either imitate or improve upon. Keep trying, Britain, you're getting there.