The version of the film screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024 had 166 minutes of runtime. The version released in theaters in October 2024 had 161 minutes. Gilles Lellouche said he kept editing the film up until the weekend before its theatrical release and cut 3 scenes out - the dance sequence at the end of the film and the scenes that showed adult Clotaire being violent and trashing Jackie's house while begging to talk to her.
'Beating Hearts' was the lowest-rated film in the main competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival by both French and international critics, who complained about the film being too long, full of cliches, racist, misogynistic, that it ripped off several classic American films, that the love story wasn't credible, and that the two lead actors had no chemistry and were outshined by the two teenagers who played the younger versions of their respective characters. Critics and the audience also complained about this film being in main competition when there were better films out of competition or in sidebars at the festival that year. Screen International's Cannes jury grid gave the film a score of 1.4 out of 4 stars, while Chaos Reign's Cannes jury grid gave the film a score of 0.9 out of 4 stars, and Ioncinema's jury grid gave it a score of 1.6 out of 5 stars. Metacritic also included this film on its list of worst films from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Despite the film's entire marketing focusing on François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, they only shared a few scenes together and spent a total of 5 days shooting those scenes.
With a production budget estimated in EUR35,7 million, this is StudioCanal's biggest investment ever in a French-language film, and also the second most expensive French film of 2024, behind Der Graf von Monte Christo (2024) with a EUR43 million budget.
Gilles Lellouche frequently works with Adèle Exarchopoulos. This film marks their fifth collaboration since 2020.