The Good Heart

Unapologetically oddball from start to finish, The Good Heart casts Brian Cox as Jacques – an almost impossibly surly bartender who forges a tentative friendship with a meek homeless kid (Paul Dano’s Lucas) after suffering his fifth coronary. Jacques, perhaps realizing that he doesn’t have much time left, decides to pass on his years of misanthropic wisdom to Lucas by putting him to work in his bar, with the movie subsequently revolving around the two characters’ plotless escapades (as well as that of the various regulars that seem to make Jacques’ establishment their home away from home). Filmmaker Dagur Kári has infused The Good Heart with an almost distractingly grimy visual sensibility that initially threatens to render the movie’s positive attributes moot, with the viewer’s patience inevitably rewarded as the relationship between Jacques and Lucas becomes more and more compelling as the thin storyline unfolds. There’s little doubt that Cox’s absolutely spellbinding work plays a significant role in the film’s mild success, as the actor steps into the shoes of his abrasive and downright mean-spirited character (eg he says things like “we’re not here to save people, we’re here to destroy them”) with a fearlessness that’s nothing short of hypnotic. Kári’s episodic screenplay eventually lends the proceedings the feel of a gritty sitcom (ie think Cheers without the jokes or accessible characters), with the stellar performances and gleefully idiosyncratic atmosphere ultimately cementing The Good Heart‘s place as a minor triumph.

*** out of ****