Name: Heartless (2009)
IMDb: link to IMDB
Genres: Horror, Mystery Country of Origin: UK
Cast: Jim Sturgess as Jamie Morgan, Noel Clarke as A.J., Timothy Spall (Wormtail in the Harry Potter films) as George Morgan, Clemence Poesy as Tia, Joseph Mawle as Papa B, Eddie Marsan as Weapons Man, Luke Treadaway as Lee Morgan, Justin Salinger as Raymond Morgan.
Written and directed by: Philip Ridley
The Three Acts:
The initial tableau: Jamie's face is dominated by large birthmarks, plural. The largest one covers his whole left eye area. Jamie does 'real' photography with film, and chemical development where he works with his brother. While trolling for photo opportunities at night, he runs afoul of some bipedal reptilians, who look like gangsters, while they kill two people and set them on fire. Jamie lives with his mother. AJ is Jamie's new neighbor; for lack of other candidates, AJ hopes to become Jamie's friend. Jamie's father George is 10 years dead, but still has a presence in his life. Jamie seems quite alienated by his life, his deformities, his job, is living arrangement, and his lack of prospects with women.
Delineation of conflicts: This is somewhat difficult to describe. Why? Because the protagonist seems to be insane. Just how much of this is real? It's hard to get interested in characters when it is not clear what is real and what is feverish imaginings.
Let us suppose that what is presented is real. Jamie gets a gun to protect himself after the gang beats the hell out of him and burns his mother alive. The reptiles rake AJ's abdomen with a deep claw attack. The whole setup is to justify Jamie's descent into cooperation with dark forces to solve his self-perceived problems.
Jamie would like to have female companionship, marriage, and children. How is that going to happen? Does the dark pact with Papa B help out this problem? Can he back out?
If the protagonist is insane, on the other hand, one hopes the conflict in his mind ends before the movie does.
Resolution: The protagonist is a broken toy. The usual resolution for broken toys is that they stop working.
One line summary: Yet another deal with the devil gone bad.
Statistics:
a. Cinematography: 2/10 We have here some really fine VHS shooting. Or is this some really bad current cinematography?
b. Sound: 1/10 Too loud, too intrusive, and not all that interesting.
c. Acting: 4/10 Joseph Mawle and Eddie Marsan were good. I liked what little I saw of Timothy Spall. Jim Sturgess was way over the top, and most of the rest of the cast I could have done without.
d. Screenplay: 2/10 The first monolog by Papa B was rather good. However, things go downhill into a flurry of cliches after that. There is nothing new here, nothing interesting, just the lies made up by an insane mind. This film was not as bad as the much more pretentious Babadook, but it is still a rotten mess.
Final rating: 2/10
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