FilmSnobReviews

Title: Hungry Hearts
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Director: Saverio Constanzo
Starring: Adam Driver, Alba Rohrwacher, Roberta Maxwell
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins

What It Is: Jude (Driver) and Mina (Rohrwacher) meet under an odd circumstance. They fall in love. They eventually get married. This seems pretty straight forward right? Wrong! When Mina finds out she’s pregnant their whole life (as it normally does) changes. During a chance encounter with a medium Mina is told the child is an “indigo child”. This sets Mina on a course to maintain the babies bodily purity, and in to the arms of madness as well.

What We Think: There is an isolation and fear within this film. Director Constanzo tries to pull some tricks with his shots in order to push that very idea. It maintains that we’re in Mina’s world and it is a solitary, lonely place. There’s lots of Hitcockian style, especially with all the importance placed on the face. There is even a point at which we get a first-person prespective with the couples baby. Some of the parlor tricks work (like the closeups) while some of it certainly does not.

Our Grade:C It is artistically appealing for sure but for all of it’s sexy shots, and arthouse photography there lies a story of awful people doing awful things while being awful. That above all else holds the film back. I like what Constanzo was going for with this, but feel the tone was a bit too off, and the connection with Mina’s character was nil. I’m all for ambiguity, but not giving us a more solidified reasonning for her flipping of personality. We get a sense of her isolation as mentioned above but it’s never a paranoid obsessed feeling. That would’ve put this into a different level. As it is it’s a serviceable indie that will rub people the wrong way and cause massive uncomfortability. Check this out if you’re lookign for an interesting story, and some good performances.