Main Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Saskia Reeves, Kate Hardie, Rhys Ifans, Anna Chancellor
Release Year: 1999
Country: UK
Run Time: 83 minutes
Plot
A mother's love turns deadly in the wake of an organ transplant in the thriller Heart. Gary Ellis (Christopher Eccleston) is a businessman, while his wife Tess (Kate Hardie) works in television. Gary and Tess don't get along very well, largely because he's convinced she's having an affair. One day, Gary has a major heart attack, and is soon confined to a wheelchair while doctors wait for a suitable donor for a heart transplant. Tess takes this opportunity to finally start having that affair Gary's been talking about, with a writer named Alex (Rhys Ifans). One day, Gary is rushed to the hospital after Sean (Matthew Rhys), a teenage aspiring boxer, is brought to the emergency room near death. Sean dies, and his heart is transplanted to Gary. After recovery, Gary is a new man, and Tess is so delighted she gives Alex his walking papers. But then Sean's mother Maria (Saskia Reeves) enters the picture; while at first Gary wanted to know what sort of person's heart was beating in his chest, now Maria is trying to work her way into the Ellis's lives, certain her son's hopes and dreams now live on in Gary's chest. Shot in 1997, Heart didn't receive a release in Europe until 1999, though it did play several film festivals the previous year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The creative team behind one of England's best TV cop shows, Cracker (the intensely engaging original with Robbie Coltrane and not the dodgy American version), makes the leap to the big screen with Heart. The results are mixed as director Charles McDougall and writer Jimmy McGovern seem at odds in telling an intriguing story. Or several intriguing stories: the sagas of Gary (Christopher Eccleston), a toxically jealous husband, and Maria (Saskia Reeves), a grieving mother who turns psychotic after her son's accidental death. Using a fractured method of storytelling -- jarring flashbacks, blistering crosscutting between sequences -- McDougall and McGovern maintain a sense of momentum that is determined to get us back to the beginning so we can see exactly whose blood Maria is covered in. It's grim going all the way -- particularly during a medically explicit heart transplant scene -- and whomever at the studio labeled this a black comedy has an odd sense of humor. There are no laughs in it, unless you think the soundtrack songs with the word "heart" in them are funny and not just bad taste. Heart challenges the viewer to gut it out, so to speak, for a big payoff; and the final ten minutes is reminiscent of something Sam Peckinpah might have done in his Straw Dogs phase. Actually, the last five seconds of the film, the very last line, changes everything and makes you question all that has come before. It's one of those things that make you go "hmm." ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Bill Paterson - Kreitman; Matthew Rhys - Sean McCardle; Jack Deam; Kate Rutter; Nicholas Moss; Paul Warriner; Maxine Burth; David Williamson; Alan Eccleston; Alison Swann
Credit
Diane Dancklefsen - Art Director, Sue Booth - Art Director, Simone Ireland - Casting, Vanessa Pereira - Casting, Beverley Keogh - Casting, Bill Shephard - Co-producer, James Keast - Costume Designer, Barry Langley - First Assistant Director, Emma Bodger - First Assistant Director, Charles McDougall - Director, Edward Mansell - Editor, Pippa Cross - Executive Producer, Janette Day - Executive Producer, Gub Neal - Executive Producer, Mickey McGovern - Executive Producer, Stephen Warbeck - Composer (Music Score), Bob Last - Musical Direction/Supervision, Stuart Walker - Production Designer, Chris Roope - Production Designer, Julian Court - Cinematographer, Nicola Shindler - Producer, Phil Smith - Sound/Sound Designer, Jimmy McGovern - Screenwriter
