"The only truth is love beyond reason" goes the quote from French poet Alfred de Musset that opens Xavier Dolan's moody dreamy French Canadian film Heartbeats. That sounds beautiful in theory, sure, but living it is messier. Immediately the film cuts to a funny frank series of talking head interviews from people who have been unlucky in love. One woman compares herself to Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and describes panicking at her computer, waiting for emails that never come.
If somebody died every time I hit refresh, there'd be nobody left alive.
Poetic idealized notions of love clashing with humiliating darkly comic reality? It's a pretty apt way to introduce and describe this arguably slight but beautiful film...
Heartbeats is currently available in select theaters from IFC and On Demand. I'll have an interview with one of the actors shortly after Oscar weekend wraps up. 2011 Index of Movies. This will undoubtedly pick up soon.