Not only the most accomplished British film of the year (okay, it's only August) but one of the finest films of the year period (ditto), Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger's second co-directorial project following Boyfriends (1996) is a beguiling, comic, adroitly executed and often painfully poignant gem.
An ostensibly unassuming tale concerning the gathering of assorted friends and family for the funeral of Stuart (David Coffey), a recently deceased gay restaurateur whose partner Nick (Tom Hollander) is left at the mercy of Stuart's family in regard to inheriting a substantial sum of money, Lawless Heart displays a wholly effective formal dexterity that juxtaposes and interlinks the lives of the principal mourners. Thus, beginning with an impressively executed funeral sequence to which we subsequently return, we glimpse Dan's (Bill Nighy), the husband of Stuart's sister Judy, attempt to deal with the flirtatious attentions of Corinne (Clémentine Célarié) and the return of Stuart's cousin Tim (Douglas Henshall), a perennially cash-strapped long-term traveller whose romantic involvement with Leah (Josephine Butler) is tempered by a former liaison. We also learn of Nick's attempts to slowly piece his life together and of his fledgling sexual relationship with the effervescent Charlie (Sukie Smith), a local good-time girl with a heart of gold tainted by a penchant for local Neanderthal types.
Contemporary audiences are of course relatively well versed in piecing together initially digressive, interweaving narrative strands; Amores Perros (2000) being a recent notable example of a similarly daring formal aesthetic. Not for Lawless Heart however Iñárritu's kinetic swagger; more comparable is the almost meditative approach to chance, coincidence and interaction to be found in much of the work of Kieslowski. The film-makers themselves credit early Eric Rohmer as the most profound influence in terms of weaving a rich tapestry of multiple, interconnected characters. Director of photography Sean Bobbitt proves an able assist in regard to achieving the film's impressive formal sensibility. Assiduously working to maintain narrative coherence, the camerawork clearly echoes the three main narrative strands by alternating from tracking shots to static set-ups and then finally to a vérite handheld technique. Picturesque use is also made of the exteriors, shot in and around Maldon on the Essex coastline, Hunsinger's hometown.
However, Lawless Heart is no simple triumph of style over content. Featuring a cavalcade of sympathetic, vividly drawn and wholly believable characters, it's a perceptive, wonderfully written affair that never seeks to patronise or marginalise its protagonists. Foibles and weaknesses are revealed with tenderness, candor and a refreshing lack of didacticism. Moreover, the film never for one moment lurches into the perilous terrain of maudlin sentimentality, all the more impressive given the fact that it intermittently manages to be genuinely moving, particularly in its closing moments which features home-movie footage set to the strains of Schubert.
Added to the litany of praise are the sensitive, highly attuned performances of an impressively assembled cast. The mighty Bill Nighy is finally given a role worthy of his talents whilst Tom Hollander delivers on the glimmers of promise he has on previous occasion (Ben Elton's atrocious Maybe Baby (2000) apart) tantalisingly shown. Sukie Smith is a winning combination of wounded and vivacious and it would be churlish to deny a game Douglas Henshall (allegedly a last minute replacement) the benefit of the doubt as the gregarious Scot struggles manfully with a cockney accent.
An intelligent but entertaining film that repays and actively invites repeated viewings, I am genuinely unable to unearth anything resembling a notable criticism and so both await their next project with baited breath and recommend this one unreservedly.
Reviewed by Jason Wood
Reader comments about Lawless Heart
philomena (philomena@breathemail.net) writes:
An absolutely excellent and poignant film, so well acted, and avoiding all the empty cliches of current British film (including casting cliches). Structurally very interesting also, an interweaving that could have been confusing but which was dexterously handled. The only poor thing about the film is the crap title. It really made me think, and it's a tribute to the film that some months after seeing it I searched it out on the net and came up with this web site.
Soloman Ainsley-Dawkins (Email address withheld) writes:
A richly watchable drama about three men whose love lives are in flux. A mosaic of love and loneliness. In the end, though, everyone is connected, or unified, by a mysterious humanistic thread.
I love the title, Lawless Heart, makes me think of Unchained Melody.
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