Review of Heartless (2010) by Gordon B — 07 Jul 2010

Heartless is the story of young man who has been burdened with a big birth mark across his face, which he believes has stopped him from being normal all his life. The film makes a number of statements about the state of gang culture and how bad life is getting and things which makes some sense but is so blatant and in your face that it loses any authenticity.

The idea of the supernatural characters, that without giving away anything, are key to the development of the story also have a lot of potential to make this a very enjoyable and entertaining movie, providing us with thrills, action, gore and violence.

In this respect the films great it grips you from the start and is a white-knuckle ride to the end but there is something missing that is noticeable all the way through. MAKING SENSE. By the end of the film with a ending that does give a good final message I have no idea how certain things are supposed to have happened, the film seems to think its giving us a great twist that makes everything add up but in my thoughts all that the ending does is leave you questioning what in the movie was actually happening and if certain things are and aren't there are so many plot holes its unbelieveable.

It reminded me quite a lot of Guy Ritchie's Revolver a movie that is undoubtedly very entertaining but is confused at what its actually about, watching the cast interviews afterwards furthered this view as none of them seemed to have any clue when asked the question 'What is Heartless?' and this is, generally, not a good thing at all.

If you don't know what the film is about, what is the point? Worth a watch and if anyone can make complete sense of it I would love to hear, I would've liked to like this film but there are just too many flaws in the plot!