

Movie Review

A Hole in My Heart (Club)

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Duration: 0 minutes

1 of 1 Disturbs and bores
Disturbs and bores

Directed by Lukas Moodysson, starring Thorsten Flinck, Bjorn Almroth, Sanna Brading and Goran Marjanovic.

Perhaps you've seen Lukas Moodysson's feature length debut 'Show Me Love', his hippie comedy 'Together' or the bleak 'Lilya 4 Ever'. None of these acclaimed works can prepare you for 'A Hole in My Heart', a film which disturbs and bores in equal measure and could leave you feeling as empty as its characters.

In a shabby apartment, Rickard (Flinck), Tess (Brading) and Geko (Marjanovic) are making a porn film. Hiding out from them and the wider world in his bedroom is Rickard's teenage son Erik (Almroth), a goth who shuns daylight, listens to painful industrial music and keeps earthworms as pets. As the shoot wears on, the mood changes from seemingly good-natured to edgy and to
violent, with the trio of 'stars' locked in mind games and the withdrawn Erik seeming to be the voice of reason amidst the mayhem.

Here is another film determined to push the boundaries and which feels it has something important to say - but no idea how to say it. A wearying experience from start to finish, 'A Hole in My Heart' is graphic, slapdash and memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. Moodysson wants to rail against consumerism, troubled people, the loss of empathy and privacy but dilutes every argument with such flimsy filmmaking that you're in no mood to care. Shock value ends up obscuring the bigger messages and the brief moments where you feel a connection with the characters only serve to show just how badly misjudged the whole thing is.

Don't eat anything beforehand if you plan on seeing it; you certainly won't be in the mood afterwards.

Harry Guerin

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