CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT REVIEWS

LAWLESS HEART

I came home from work last night to a sweltering apartment and instead of suffering the heat wave in an un-air conditioned apartment, I said:  "Screw this - I'm going to the movies. The movie theatre is air conditioned!" Now I hate going to the movies alone, but I also didn't really feel like scrambling around looking for someone to go with at the last moment, so I picked up this week's stack of comics and headed to Cinema 379 to see whatever they were showing. I didn't care what it was, as long as it wasn't "House of 1000 Corpses" again. I just wanted to sit in an air conditioned theatre, read comic books and then watch a movie.

A British film called "Lawless Heart" was playing. I didn't know anything about it but I sat back to watch the show. "Who cares what it was about?" I thought to myself, "At least it is cool in the theatre."

It's been nearly eighteen hours now since I walked out of the theatre but I am still breathless. "Lawless Heart" is possibly one of the very best films that I have seen in a long time. Last time I can remember leaving a theatre with goosebumps was when I saw "Life is Beautiful" five years ago.

"Lawless Heart" contains three interwoven stories about three men that are connected by the drowning of a gay restaurant owner named Stuart. The film begins at the man's funeral and follows the individual stories of Stuart's brother-in-law Dan, Stuart's lover Nick, and Stuart's cousin Tim.

Dan, a farmer and a family man, meets a florist at the funeral and finds himself attracted to her. As a result of his attraction to the dignified middle aged French woman, he begins to question the importance of loyalty in a marriage and to battle  the temptation of having an affair.

Nick's story involves his emotional upheaval from losing his partner, as well his own questions about his sexual orientation when a strange and unstable woman, Charlie, drops into his life. The closer he becomes to Charlie the more he becomes confused about his loyalty to his deceased lover, as well as his feelings towards his new friend.

Tim, a reckless and rather irresponsible man, returns home after eight years for the funeral and, out of work and money, decides to stay in Sussex. He falls head over heels for a boutique owner, Leah. However, in a cruel twist of fate, Leah is the ex-lover of Tim's best friend and adopted brother, David. Leah and David's affair broke up David's marriage but, in spite of Tim's attempt to ignore it, many unsettled emotions remain between David and Leah.

These three stories interweave throughout each other in a time pattern that I have never seen before.  Remember the first time you saw "Pulp Fiction" and how you were highly impressed with the way that the three stories wove together and some scenes were often repeated, even from a different angle? Imagine that same editing effect, only done more so and more effectively. That is the only way I can describe the way that this film is put together. It is the most clever non-linear storytelling I've ever seen...

However what got under my skin the most while watching this film were the honest performances of the actors. Each player in the film gives fantastic and subtle performances - even the bit characters become memorable. The characters in this film make mistakes - not gigantic mistakes of Shakespearian proportions but honest mistakes that are driven by raw emotion.  The kind of mistakes that we all make as human beings. Furthermore, even when you want to slap these characters up the side of the head you can't help but care for them. Really truly care for them. You want to know what happens to them and you want everything to work out for the best - no matter what the consequences might be. A few times I wanted to reach out to these characters and reassure them that everything was going to be okay. That's the true beauty of this film.

Finally, the film tries to show that even the most insensitive men have feelings too.  They also have shit to work out.  "Lawless Heart" is a masculine film in context in the sense that it deals with the problems that men go through but that are not often shown in film - love, betrayal, sex, grief and growth.  However, despite the fact that it deals with the masculine version of these emotions, it remains a quiet and a tender film without ever becoming clichéd or unbelievable.

Although "Lawless Heart" has won a number of European film festival and critics' choice awards, it has barely made a dent in North American cinema.  This is a beautiful film that you can't dare to not see.  Hopefully it will one day be rediscovered and hailed as the cinematic masterpiece that it is.
 

All content copyright Sam Tweedle 2006.