Heartaches

Charismatic screen icons Annie Potts and Margot Kidder are on immaculately beguiling form in sparky 80s drama Heartaches. Far too good to be this obscure, director Donald Shebib does an exemplary job preventing this engagingly written, energetically performed story from ever lapsing into saccharine melodrama. It's a simple, earnest story of a beautiful friendship eloquently told, while often humorous, Heartaches proves appropriately adapt at plucking mellifluously at the old heartstrings. Heartaches remains a lively, uniquely charming female-led Canadian feature dazzlingly bejewelled with two amusingly disparate, hugely appealing characters that greatly deserves a far bigger audience. I've always had a mad crush on Kidder, and Rita is a real live wire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had heard about this movie for years. Margot Kidder always mentioned this role in every TV Special they did on her. She claimed the role didnt pay her much, but won her major awards in Canada. She said it was a great role. I feel this movie is worth watching because it features Canada so well. So many of the characters, and landscapes and behavior, and how people handle things is very Canadian. Annie Potts is really good in an early role. Margot Kidder was really good in her role. I was expecting more. She was good, and I guess since it was so different from Superman, that got her a lot of respect. She won the Genie, the Canadian Oscar. This movie is entertaining and was not boring.

This flick is tricky to come by, but it is available on video and is extremely likable. A very young Annie Potts plays an insecure pregnant woman who is afraid to tell her husband that he is not the father of the bun in the oven. She runs away and moves in with Margot Kidder's raunchy man-hungry drifter. The chemistry between the two make it a hard show to resist. A female buddy movie with a refreshing lightness of touch and some beautiful cinematography.

I recently caught this film on Showtime, after looking for it for well over twenty years. I had first seen it as a young girl, but it is just as fresh, sweet and endearing as it was back then. If you get a chance to check it out, please do. Margot Kidder is hilarious as Rita, and Annie Potts is good too. The ilm is essentially about a young woman who is really just learning about the world, and she is lucky enough to connect with an older, more experienced woman who is good hearted and kind. They run into many adventures along the way, and of course become friends. This must have been a sleeper back then, but it is still a gem. They don't make too many sensitive films that are funny anymore.