If you saw the poster for "The Heart Knows," you'd think it would be a heartfelt romance that would at least satisfy the hunger for sentimentality we're often deprived of. But instead of a sentimental romance, the film attempts to be a family drama, offering hope, turning it into a boring piece of multimedia, devoid of any relevant content and completely forgettable. This is the problem with having so many new releases every week on platforms like Netflix, and consuming them because we feel we have no other choice.
I've seen a few Argentine films in my time writing about cinema, and some very powerful ones far outshine this gray and monotonous film that fails to deliver on its only promise: the heart. The film tells the story of Juan, a businessman; you know, typically inhuman and unconcerned about the world as long as he makes money. But when he receives a heart transplant, he undergoes a transformation, a personality that more closely resembles that of the person who gave him the heart. What follows is predictable chaos, where Juan tries to find the donor's family and help them, until he falls in love with his wife.
Director: Marcos Carnevale
Writer: Marcos Carnevale
Stars: Julia Calvo, Gloria Carrá, Julieta Díaz
What I don't understand is how this movie lacks even a hint of emotion. Here we see people fighting to keep their homes, basically fighting for their lives, and it's all serious. There's no real struggle from anyone, and the woman who supposedly lost the love of her life barely seems sad, even when she learns her husband is in a vegetative state, but with functioning organs. Also, the movie, for some reason, doesn't flow very well. It feels like it's been forced upon us in bits and pieces and left to piece together the loose ends, not like a mystery thriller, but like we're lazy and don't feel the need to make a good movie. I know I'm being overly harsh and critical, but as someone who has to watch TV shows and movies all day for work, I feel that when a movie with as much potential as this one is released, I feel especially disappointed and think it's perfectly fair to delay it so we can have good movies.
When I started watching the movie and realized what was happening (I had no prior context), it reminded me of Cecilia Ahern's novel "Thanks for the Memories." While I know a novel takes a lot more time to establish a plot and give us a detailed understanding of why someone behaves a certain way, this movie doesn't even take a second to make us understand what Juan feels and why. Sure, we get the idea, but how do we make it believable? This is already too fantastical to make sense, but on top of that, there's no context and, as I said before, it feels extremely erratic, creating a character who is completely unrelatable.
But to top it all off, for a movie that's marketed as romantic (I mean, you can't deny that after seeing the poster), there's no chemistry or any reason for this woman to fall in love with this man. They literally barely interact, and when they do, it's very professional and polite, and suddenly they're crazy about each other? Okay, we know why he's upset, but how could she possibly feel that way? And then the movie ends so quickly, as if they forgot to add an extra 5 minutes—you know, the "happily ever after" part—to make it all shocking. So, honestly, I wondered why the hell this movie was made.
Now, since I'm not Argentinian, I don't know the song the title is based on, so that's another thing I'm missing as a member of a global audience, but it would have been nice if the movie had been interesting enough for me to investigate its meaning after watching it. But I feel like the only thing I could get out of this movie is finding a funny Argentinian song.
I mean, the acting was okay, because it was pretty decent, but there wasn't much to it due to the shoddy script and the odd swear word used for comedy. I didn't understand it at all, and as always, I'm forced to blame it on "lost in translation." The dubbing is pretty bad, so if you want to see it, I recommend watching it in Spanish. It definitely feels much more passionate, even though the script doesn't demand it. There's some random cursing, I might add, but nothing to worry about regarding the sex. The film is short, only an hour and 29 minutes, which I'm sincerely glad about, because it still felt like a waste of time. It's not even the kind of movie to enjoy by making fun of it or to cry over. It's simply too middle of the road in every way. The transformation is deeply disappointing, and the film's context is vague, which makes the thinly drawn plot seem even worse than it is.
The transformation is deeply disappointing, and the film's context is vague, making the thinly drawn plot seem even worse than it is. For a film titled "The Heart Knows," the attractions should be fatal and the love so profound it's unimaginable. Using an existing concept and bringing nothing new to it makes The Heart Knows an absolutely terrible film. Much could have been done with this concept, but the film's laziness makes the viewing experience feel like a poorly managed group project. I would give The Heart Knows 2 out of 5 stars.
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