A Hole in My Heart

A HOLE IN MY HEART... I was surprised, disappointed and most of all: shocked! Though the contents of this film (both images and themes) sure are truly disturbing, it weren't really those that shocked me the most. The end-result did, and even more: What has become of Lukas Moodysson! It seemed like Moodysson, after LILJA 4-EVER, skipped a few phases in his evolution as a film-maker, and then suddenly came up with this experiment (which is what it is actually: an experiment, NOT a movie). During the first 15 minutes I had the feeling this just might end up being a 9/10 movie. By the time it was finished I felt like rating this movie 4/10 would still be too much.

So, what is it about? Well, you can forget about a plot, because there is none. Just four characters and the stuff they do in an apartment. Rickard lives in his apartment together with his timid son Eric. The latter appears to suffer from some sort of autistic disorder or something (whatever it is, he's got mental issues). He also has a deformed hand and some very weird hobbies: he has worms for pets, he seems to collect dirt and junk in his room (don't ask me how it got there, since he is never seen leaving the apartment) and likes to listen to electronic noises and distortions through his headphones. Other than that, he does nothing. Rickard himself is into making home-made porn videos. Other than that, he too does nothing else. Geko is his friend and fellow porn actor who spends most of his time at Rickards place. Enter Tess, a quite attractive young blond girl who is into hard sex, make-up, taking a lot of showers and snorting coke (amongst other things in general). Now prepare yourself for a disturbing descent into the depraved minds of these four characters. Admittedly, this might seem fascinating or intriguing, but however, due to the lack of any form of coherency whatsoever, also prepare for boredom to kick in about halfway through the movie and best expect it to never go away.

Despite the nudity and pornographic subject matter in this film, no clearly visible shots of penetration are shown (though a rather explicit female masturbation scene does grace the screen for a minute there). However, a lot of other offensive images are being shown (along with plenty acts of the disturbed). Needless to go into them now (and besides that: I don't want to spoil anything for anyone), but I'll just name one random fact: You'll never look at a raw steak the same way again after having seen this film.

But now for the worst things about this whole experiment. There wasn't a real script to begin with (one page of the script, according to Moodysson, had only written the word "excorcism" on it). Moodysson clearly had no clue what the hell he was doing while shooting this 'movie'. Neither had his long-time director's assistant, the crew nor the actors. Moodysson only gave vague directions like "Don't act, be yourself" or "It's a documentary, not a movie". He sure might have had a lot of ideas, but it was clear to me that in no way Moodysson was able to communicate them to his actors. At one point Moodysson even shut down and left the set, leaving the actors to continue spewing out their confused thoughts on this project. (Source: Published interview, "Discussion on set"-featurette). True thing might be that a lot of metaphors and statements are to be found in this movie, but as a viewer you just have no clue what to look for. So if anyone says to you: "This movie is about this or that" or "This is what Moodysson is trying to say", then be careful and take it with a big grain of salt. Because you will never be sure until you've asked the director himself (and I even doubt he can give you a straight answer himself).

But I'd like to add just a few more positive notes though. On a technical level, this movie is pretty interesting. Especially the editing is remarkable and progressive. The same can be said about the many sound effects and the way they blend together with the on screen images (aswell as the complete absence of any sound in some scenes). It also strangely leads to the conclusion that both editor and director might have been on drugs, which actually could be a good thing in experimental film-making. And that just was another key-word here: "Experimental" (film-making), instead of the word "Amateur" some people like to apply on this film. No matter what's being said, Moodysson is an experienced and gifted film-maker, so why he decided to throw all his knowledge overboard is beyond me. Indeed, A HOLE IN MY HEART might have worked very effectively as an experimental short-film, but as a full length feature it fails after about 45 minutes.

But love it or hate it: This still remains an unforgettable piece of film. I have a difficult time recommending this to anybody, as I have a lot of trouble with liking much about it myself. But people who have seen Makavejev's SWEET MOVIE, Lars von Trier's THE IDIOTS, Harmony Korine's GUMMO or maybe (but to a lesser extend) Dylan Bank's NIGHTMARE might be interested in seeking out this Moodysson effort. But keep in mind that all the aforementioned movies had at least some sort of story, as where A HOLE IN MY HEART doesn't even try to tell one.

To end this all, I feel I just might want to suggest something to Lukas Moodysson himself: Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to go and visit a psychiatrist and get some good medication. Then, please come back and make another movie, this time telling another decent story. Otherwise I'd suggest going back to your first love and start writing poetry again. Good luck either way.

Just when you think that the film has done everything it can to shock and disgust you ... it gets worse ! Thinking about scenes in isolation, they shouldn't be too bad - but I guess it's the whole development of the characters that make events so disturbing.

The director was on stage afterwards (London Film Festival) and said that he thought there were something like 68 different messages in the film, but wouldn't expand on any of them, and wouldn't answer questions about why he had blanked out all the logos - other than to confirm that he had done it on purpose. He also claimed that he didn't understand the film himself, and that he would much prefer to be making children's movies rather than this type of film.

Before the film he had predicted that 9% of the audience would walk out during the film - he seemed pleased that the dropout rate was lower than expected !

Worth seeing, if you like being made to feel uncomfortable ...

In many ways i can understand why people would take a disliking to this film, it is very difficult... but it's also one of the most human films i've seen for a long long time.

It's a film for people who don't want to go to see a film to 'enjoy it' it's a film that is what it is, it's not a sing and dance, it's not an entertainment piece.

I found this film very interesting indeed and found all the characters to have a lot of depth to them. This film is much closer to Lilja 4-ever rather than Together, so that may sway you to one way or the other. What makes this harder than Lilja 4-ever is that it isn't addressing issues in a very forward manner, it isn't always clear what this film is 'trying to say'.

But yeah, if you give it the chance and don't come to this film for a laugh or to enjoy yourself and are actually interested in film in it's purest form, then this should prove of worth and an interesting purchase.

You'll probably hear a lot about how shocking and unrelenting this film is. My first reaction was to call the film "Pink Flamingoes"-esque, but I knew this was wrong, as this movie never shocks for the sake of shock itself. I've never seen another Moodysson film (although I will now), but his fury really came through and spoke to me here. He is taking our civilization's obsessions with seeing everything, with pushing limits, and shoving it in our face, making us hurt for it. That said, there is much beauty here as well, and a pitch black humour that carries viewers through the darkest moments. The protagonist, a teenage boy who spends most of his time in his room with headphones on, attempting to block out the increasingly depraved porno being filmed by his father and friends in the living room of a tiny apartment, tells a couple of stories based around the theme of beauty existing under the most impossible conditions, life flourishing where no one would've thought it could, and he is referring both to himself and the moments of grace that Moodysson places throughout the film. He even manages to give a feeling of hope by the end, which stuck with me as I walked down the street, although my stomach gave a serious churn as I walked by an adult video store.

Mr. Moodysson made a flick here that has very little rhyme, but a lot of reason. No, wait...it has a lot of rhyme, but zero reason. No! It's...uh, there's a little bit from...hmmm.

As soon as A Hole in My Heart began, I realized taking that little bit of Nyquil probably wasn't the greatest of ideas. But luckily, I'm a tough guy, and I managed to keep focus on Lukas's lil experiment. Because that's what this was kinda, an outlined experiment. Well, I think so anyways.

For me, I split the movie into separate aspects. One ideal is for the three adults (the Dad, his friend and the porn actress) of the movie, and the other is for the son. With the three adults your shown immaturity, delusion, confusion, and just a whole wave of emotional problems. Not far away is the son; overly thoughtful, a shut-in, quiet...and simply appears the polar opposite to the three on the other side of the door. And whatever story this movie was trying to present, in my opinion, lies within comparing the two sides to another other, and hoping they would find a common ground. And even that was hard to do, as all the characters (even the son) were rather unlikable, and all relied on pity.

Was the film intriguing? Yeah, I guess. Was it well directed? I thought so. Was it entertaining? Not really. Is there a deeper meaning than simply comparing the people to one another, and not trying to look at them as useless human beings? Maybe. But if you really want to do such a thing, I think you're already fighting an uphill battle.

From my point of view there's not much to learn from this film, as it was mostly full of negative things. And I'm curious to know Lukas's point of the film. I would guess it was a very simple idea. I could easily say this film's underlying message is to get an education. But I could be dead wrong. Watch this flick if you like to ponder about movies afterwards. Don't if you don't.