Strange Hearts

I loved this film. Rose M is all grown up and Forester couldn't be better. It moved me. i loved this movie. The fragile balance in life between what we mean and what we say are well explored. The consequnce of inaction is heartbreaking and can hurt us more than the things we do say. Well done.

Breathtakingly ridiculous dialog, wholly unlikely plot features, and characters who seem crafted specifically to mock any attempt to take them seriously didn't stop this amazing mess from being made (of what, though? One imagines there had to be some promising kernel that ended up flowering into this egregious waste of time.) and never cleaned up. Hence, it's clear that *anything* can find the financing to see celluloid (or HD), although the process by which this one got finished would have to be more interesting than the film itself. It's entirely possible that the film's off-kilter pacing and made-for-70s-TV sensibilities could eventually land it a cult gig, but of course there's always a lot of competition for those; perhaps a film-school tale-of-caution will be this three-titled train-wreck's legacy.

I loved this film...I felt sorry about the rat in the can but still I loved it hehe. Rose McGowan's all grown up since Jawbreaker, which was so awful. This movie proves that even she can be emmotional, away from "Charmed" which she totally blowed. GREAT job to all the cast, exellent done guys!!

I read the review as posted by another person in regards to this movie, and I felt it wasn't giving Strange Hearts, Road to Riches ... or whatever it's called, the proper justice. (Which makes me think, why do people ever make up multiple titles to a movie. Whenever I think of that I think of the movie White Water Summer; save yourself some time and don't look it up folks, Kevin Bacon will probably thank you).

Anyway, I know my opinion may be a little biased considering I just got done watching the movie, but I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Robert Forester did such a good job in this movie it actually made me come here and write a review for the first time. I don't want to build the movie up or anything, but it was a nice character movie.

Be it as it may that it did have unrealistic parts, but the direction was great and very original. It had many great moments to keep my attention. Like at the beginning when Forester's character gets screwed on a $100,000 dollar pyramid rip-off and he swears himself off the set. Apparently it only takes two seconds and two guesses to get "air propulsion", but it takes ten seconds and more than the obvious hints of birds and airplanes to make a clod guess "things that fly"(yeah, I'd be really angry too).

Sure, Rose McGowan could have used a couple of stripper classes or two, and if I hadn't already seen her naked I'd wonder if she had silver dollar nipples with the size of those boobie tassels she was wearing. However, I must say it was a good movie I enjoyed watching. I'm not going to buy it or anything, but if you're up at eleven o'clock at night and you happen to see it on, It's well worth your time. Especially to find out just what Forester's character will do with that empty soda can.

The biggest star in this vehicle was Harry Hamlin, playing a character named Dan Smith, so that shows you how important that role was.

Robert Forster, looking like a poor man's Alec Baldwin, plays Jack Waters, a middle-aged man who is a contestant on the live (on the air) game show "Road to Riches". He thinks he's going to win $50,000. He doesn't. He's so enraged he begins cursing and has to be physically restrained and led from the set. Strangely enough, despite this fact, and the fact he later destroys property--as well as making threats--he is never barred from the studio. That is just one example of the lack of believability in this film.

The next character to enter the non-plot of this storyline is young Henry Fields played by Kip Pardue. Henry, new in town, is the poster child for naive yokel.

Henry & Jack fall into conversation outside the studio and hook up.

Jack takes Henry to a strip joint, where Henry sees Moira Kennedy(our third character--played by Rose McGowan), on stage, performing what is supposed to be an erotic, exotic Asian dance. What actually happened is, the girl came out and did a little wriggling and weaving that lasted maybe five minutes and was nothing exceptional.

Moira is a friend of Jack's, so she's conveniently handy from then on.

Nothing of much interest happens throughout the rest of the film. There's some kind of offer made by Dan Smith to Jack to screw over Henry for an undisclosed amount of money. Why Dan would make this offer was never clear.

Eventually we have both men up for grabs by the unexceptional Moira. There's balding Jack, a loser old enough to be her grandfather, and Henry, another loser, dumber than dirt. Gosh! Golly! Gee-willikers Folks!--which one will she chose!? I know I didn't care.

1 star