Heartless Details

I rest my case, m'lud.

The film has an interesting idea – that a heart transplant patient can take on some of the persona of the donor. In this case, Harry Holland, played by Angus Deayton, an unpleasant, “morally bankrupt” barrister, receives a heart from a Scottish donor. He somehow finds where the donor came from and travels to the village and meets the donor’s wife, Amanda, played convincingly by Simone Lahbib.

To engage with any film, the audience has to have a belief in the characters and plot. For me, there were just too many inconsistencies and coincidences in the storyline which turned my interest from tolerance to annoyance.

Angus Deayton is one of those actors who appear to be playing themselves playing the part. Perhaps he was told by his first ever director to “be yourself” and the advice has stayed with him.

So many questions arose during the film such as why did the motorbike happen to break down on the outskirts of the very village he was heading for? How did Amanda manage to make love to Harry without noticing a huge scar from heart surgery? And just how does Harry manage to ride a motorbike to Scotland from London just three weeks after a major heart operation? I could compile a long list of such questions, but this would only serve to suspend any remaining belief you may have in the movie and you would probably think I was a bit of an anorak for doing so.

If you enjoy seeing the great scenery of Scotland, rent the DVD.

If you enjoy watching great stories, rent ‘I’m not scared’, or ‘he loves me – he loves me not’.