Hungry Hearts (2015)

Best movie ever!

Admirable film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The subject line is the exact opposite of the last movie review I wrote here, and I hadn't even seen this awful movie. As I've gotten older I've come to like the expression, "if you can't say something good, don't say anything," but this movie is so bad I've got to add my review to the few negative ones here.The beginning of the movie is in fact one of the better scenes, and it's stupid, and implausible for numerous reasons. Don't tell me two bathroom doors are going to suddenly become inoperable, it's just not believable.The movie goes downhill from there. The couple who meet in the weird bathroom scene get married and have a child, and I could already see problems with the script, but you never know. In fact, from the point they have the child the movie becomes an unmitigated disaster. She is very mentally ill and has "New Age" ideas about how to raise the child. I am not saying that the two are related, though maybe to the writer they are in some way. Whatever, her ideas are not working, and the child is not developing properly, and it's more than just that it's too small. The husband (Adam Driver performs quite well in his role, somehow) finally has enough of it and has to sneak the baby out to a doctor, who tells him the baby is in trouble. The mother is not only very mentally ill, but also quite stubborn: it's going to be her way, and only her way. Sometimes when told the truth about the baby or given advice she simply acts like a deaf mute and says nothing. Other times she repeats the same mantras she believes, like some kind of robot. Her face constantly show misery and she's always sullen. When the husband talks to her with kindness and obvious affection, she is often rude and picks fights.I am not an expert on these things, but to me it was obvious that the actress didn't like her character. Maybe a more skilled actress could have done more with the material, and (I may be way off) such an actress might have made suggestions about improving a badly written character. Driver's character grows in his fatherhood; the female lead never changes in any way, and it really affects the (entertainment) value of the movie.I've rarely seen a movie, even a bad movie, where the camera work wasn't correct. Whoever did the camera work in this movie acted like a student, trying out different things just to see how they would turn out, and whoever did the edit retained some awful cinematography, or whatever the word is. There were many close-ups that were unnecessary (no, they had nothing to do with "intimacy"), and worse other scenes with weird camera angles and distortions that just added to the displeasure of watching such a bad movie.

The subject of Hungry Hearts is an original and challenging one, and certainly not the usual kind of drama involving a couple that you might expect. Saverio Costanzo, the director of The Solitude of Prime numbers, clearly doesn't do the common subject matter in his films, even when working in America.Even the manner in which Jude and Mina meet is far from common, and it's clearly not the most romantic of situations. Both are trapped within the small restroom of a Chinese restaurant in New York, where Jude has embarrassingly had a bad case of the runs. The two of them are not only unable to open the door but they can't even open a window for fresh air. Nonetheless, they become a couple, Mina gets pregnant and they get married. Jude is American and Mina is Italian, but their differences go deeper than that, and it's the birth of their child that brings them starkly to the surface.Even before the baby is born, Mina is concerned about her pregnancy, not eating much and having nightmares. She consults a fortune-teller, develops strange ideas about the child and is determined to have a natural birth, involving hospitals and doctors as little as possible. When the baby is born, she becomes over-protective, refusing to let the baby breath the filthy air of NY city and unwilling even to let the baby take antibiotics for an infection. Adam and the doctor are concerned that the baby appears malnourished and isn't developing. Thereafter, a struggle develops between Jude and Mina to ensure that the baby doesn't come to any harm.It's not a bitter struggle but a cautious one, where even the authorities are unwilling to intervene on such a sensitive issue. This is where Costanzo show his ability not to provide standard dramatic points or stray into melodrama, but rather explore the situation in a more balanced way in line with the nature of the main characters. It's not perfect however. The storytelling feels a little schematic (with Mina's premonitory nightmare and its realisation being just a little too neat), but it also feels patchy with a semi-improvised, handheld, indie, almost Dogme-like quality. Some high angle fish-eye views feel a little gratuitous as a means of presenting Mina 'distorted' perspective on reality. The performances are also variable, Driver not entirely convincing, Rohrwacher's English often difficult to make out.On the other hand the emotional charge of the reality of the situation still comes across effectively without having to rely on glossy cinematography or a melodramatic score, and you really get a sense of the seriousness of what is at stake. Presenting a balanced view of an unbalanced situation is tricky, but Alba Rohrwacher also makes Mina more sympathetic than you might expect, the young woman tortured in her own mind rather than just being deluded and dangerous. It's typically well-played by Rohrwacher with intense interiority.

The movie started out promising with a "meet cute" in a toilet, but the purported "stink" of that opening scene was actually a metaphor for the entire film. Despite valiant efforts by the two leads, the script and direction were so far fetched and over the top that no amount of good acting could save this piece of schlock. Weird camera angles that come and go for no apparent reason, an absurd wedding montage accompanied by the entirety of "Flashdance", again for no apparent reason, a house in Westchester filled with deer heads, again for no apparent reason...and the list could go on for pages. Roberta Maxwell's performance is a hoot for all the wrong reasons...like she has watched too many demonic possession films. And, no, she is not demonically possessed in the movie. The use of horror movie sound effects and strings to underscore the supposed tension actually brought laughs from the audience. And this is not a funny movie. What this film was doing in the Tribeca Film Festival is beyond me; and, yes, I understand that it did well at Venice. But...ugh. I'm guessing we won't see this film released on these shores.

The opening scene is funny and mortifying at the same time, giving a false sense of a under budgeted romantic comedy to the film, but then it gets darker. The awkwardly sweet duo become one, they fall in love and hit off. Step by step, things get serious and these lovebirds turn into an unnerving couple as the movie gets psychological and somber. Originally - in the book - in Italy, the story was transposed to New York City because the Italian director thought that it belonged in there. I don't know if I agree completely but given what is depicted in the film I understand this choice. Saverio Costanzo used tight shots and close ups to bring the intimacy needed for the story. As the story develops each scene gets a shade darker and the intimacy of the shots seem to illustrate Jude (Driver) and Mina (Rohrwacher)'s state of minds. It's subtle and masterfully crafted to bring you a place where you never thought you'd go. The chips fall into place and you realize what you're in for, Mina and Jude start to make sense and a chill crawls up your spine. The slight sense of dread takes over just enough to keep captivated, but not fully engaged to make you too uncomfortable and wary. If it was done any other way it would have probably been too hard to watch, instead, like a car crash you find yourself watching these people on their way down the rabbit hole. @wornoutspines