Heartless hits UK theaters tomorrow and in preparation we’d like to share highlights from the various reviews which are popping up all over the internet. Additionally we wish the entire Heartless team all the best and congratulate them on the film’s critical success!
Reviews
Times Online - The cast are superb, particularly Jim Sturgess in the lead; the music, including songs written by the multitalented Mr Ridley, induces a dream-like state; and Ridley’s native East End, shot mostly at night, takes on a sulphurous glow. And though several sequences are gruesome enough to be watched only through splayed fingers, it’s no generic horror flick, but one of the most original and audacious British psychological thrillers in a while.
Guardian - The sheer energy of this fairytale brew of chaos, apocalypse and fantasy is impressive, and it really does deliver a few good frights: embarrassingly, one had me three inches out of my seat, emitting a high-pitched yelp.
Express - A family tragedy leads him to Papa B (Joseph Mawle) who promises that Jim can be born again and enjoy his dream of a loving girlfriend and a happy family life. It seems too good to be true and that’s because it is. Heartless is not without its pretensions and failings but Ridley’s baroque imagination and a strong cast ensure that it remains engrossing throughout.
Dark Matters - Now Ridley is back and he’s not lost his love of exposing the grotesque, dark underbelly of human nature… Much as David Lynch does so effectively. Indeed Heartless brings deep desires to the screen and twists them into horrific nightmares – this is horror fantasy on a par with films like Pan’s Labyrinth, TV shows like American Gothic or Twin Peaks or the many works of Clive Barker. You could call Heartless: ‘Hellraiser for the Hoodie generation.’
Sky.com - Director Ridley’s first film in 15 years (since The Passion of Darkly Noon) is a typically ambitious affair which effortlessly ranges from out-and-out horror to more considered psychological nightmare. It doesn’t always work but when it does it brings a refreshingly original spin to genres deadened by formula. It’s also blessed (if that’s the right word) with a terrific performance from Sturgess, who brings a wounded vulnerability to a character who could have been crushed by self-pity.
ScreenGeek - Sturgess is fantastically cast in a role that requires a believable amount of sensitivity, his nervous demeanour sitting comfortably with his natural charm and sweetness. It is he that makes the diarrhoea of Ridley’s mind watchable, and remotely likeable, for it as chaotic as the nightmarish London it depicts. Bumping around genres like a pinball, it lacks the dedicated focus all good horrors have, indicating loftier aims. However, a frustrating unravelling can’t take away the fact that Heartless is visually and atmospherically unforgettable.
Hornsey and Crounch - This is a strange, dense and willfully ambiguous stuff but it’s also full of striking visuals of the East End in the grip of madness, genuine moments of icky horror and top notch performances from Sturgess and the amusingly evil Eddie Marsan as the Weapons Man, charged with explaining Jamie’s murderous obligations.
On the Box - Eddie Marsan (The Disappearance of Alice Creed) puts in a great stint as the ‘Weapons Man’ – employed by the devil-like Papa B to ensure Jamie carries out his part of a Faustian deal – and Jim Sturgess acts out Jamie’s turbulent life excellently. The look of the film is perhaps its greatest asset – the half gritty, half sulphurous, iridescent shots of Bethnal Green owe to Ridley’s own experimentation with the documenting of his East London stomping ground.
Movie Muser - Make no mistake, this is one of the strangest, darkest and weirdest films of the year, yet it also contains moments of genuinely touching beauty and sensitivity. It’s a huge stretch, yes, and it takes liberties, but if you give it some slack it has some reward.
