Memorable & Haunting.....A Hidden Gem
Added 3/17/2009
Did you ever feel you "discovered" something or somebody: a real gem that none of your friends knew about? Well, that's the way I feel about this film, a real sleeper than few people have ever heard about. I've enjoyed it since the first time I saw it on VHS in 1995.
When I show it to my friends, they enjoy it, too. This is an excellent romance story that's quite different, quite touching and quite haunting. In fact, this is one of the few movies that actually cost me some sleep after I first saw it.
The two main characters are "half-breeds," Avik (or "Holy Boy") is an Eskimo/white man and "Albertine," an Indian/French female. Both are well-played as kids and as adults. The filmmakers did an amazing job finding two kids who really look like the two adults probably would have looked like when they were young and with the same voice inflections and accents.
As adults Jason Scott Lee and Anne Parillaud are memorable. So is the cinematography, particularly the Dresden bombing scene which is simply jaw- dropping.
*****Spoiler alert**** The movie is heart-wrenching at times with not so-happy ending, but I think that helps make this film so memorable, so haunting. Even the music is haunting.
This is a strange, mystical movie. Either it's going to mean very little to you or it's going to be something special you'll want to see a number of times.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Interesting and ambitious but loses its way
Added 1/17/2008
Vincent Ward's Map of the Human Heart is one of those interesting failures that never quite live up to their potential. Its tale of an Eskimo and a half-Indian Canadian girl who first meet in the children's hospital he has been taken to by Patrick Bergin's ambiguous mapmaker and whose paths cross again in WW2 until the firebombing of Dresden brings matters to ahead may offer a wide canvas, but the director seems to lose his way and a considerable amount of audience involvement en route.
Re-edited after a lukewarm Cannes screening and boasting three script editors and more producers than extras, it never reaches the heart or emotions, with an ending that seems too contrived than inevitable while as an academic exercise the script's ambitions never seem fully realised. Jason Scott Lee gives a good lead performance and individual scenes stick in the memory - the lovers bouncing on top of a barrage balloon, the vividly realised firebombing and Bergin's chillingly piquish rationale for targeting it - but it's hard not to feel that something got lost in the edit.
Shot in 70mm but only shown in 35mm, the original 65mm negative for Ward's first cut is rumored to still exist, but the Region 1 NTSC DVD is from the European theatrical release version, though it does at least include 4 deleted scenes. Ann Parillaud fans will also be particularly disappointed to note that the striking and notorious UK poster art has not been used.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"Map "stays true to course.
Added 12/28/2007
This movie has an interesting lead-in and is a romantic drama. It is well written and acted.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
An Arctic Love Story
Added 11/28/2007
"Map of the Human Heart" is a charming movie painted in huge brush strokes by a master. What an epic, from a tender adolescent love story, to tuberculosis in the Arctic, and then (holy boy!) it's on to the airforce and a war, a singing career, a love scene on top of a barrage balloon, and they're up in the rafters at Albert Hall during the blitz, and along the way we briefly descend into the firestorm of Dresden and see one of the best fire scenes captured on film where a man is transformed to cinders crossing the street; and it is all a story narrated by an unreliable Eskimo who wants another drink. Some folks miss the point, they compain about clunky scene transitions and plot contrivances. But they are the non-believers. If you want big cinema, an ambitious globe-spanning epic, then Ward's movie achieves greatness. Jason Scott Lee turns in the performance of his career and a young John Cusack also makes an appearance. Other Vincent Ward movies to love are "Vigil" and "The Navigator."
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Map of the Human Heart
Added 8/26/2007
This is one of the most poignant, touching stories ever told. Spellbinding as well as adventurous this is a movie I never tire of watching or recommending to friends who have also loved it.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Memorable & Haunting.....A Hidden Gem
Added 3/17/2009
Did you ever feel you "discovered" something or somebody: a real gem that none of your friends knew about? Well, that's the way I feel about this film, a real sleeper than few people have ever heard about. I've enjoyed it since the first time I saw it on VHS in 1995.
When I show it to my friends, they enjoy it, too. This is an excellent romance story that's quite different, quite touching and quite haunting. In fact, this is one of the few movies that actually cost me some sleep after I first saw it.
The two main characters are "half-breeds," Avik (or "Holy Boy") is an Eskimo/white man and "Albertine," an Indian/French female. Both are well-played as kids and as adults. The filmmakers did an amazing job finding two kids who really look like the two adults probably would have looked like when they were young and with the same voice inflections and accents.
As adults Jason Scott Lee and Anne Parillaud are memorable. So is the cinematography, particularly the Dresden bombing scene which is simply jaw- dropping.
*****Spoiler alert**** The movie is heart-wrenching at times with not so-happy ending, but I think that helps make this film so memorable, so haunting. Even the music is haunting.
This is a strange, mystical movie. Either it's going to mean very little to you or it's going to be something special you'll want to see a number of times.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Interesting and ambitious but loses its way
Added 1/17/2008
Vincent Ward's Map of the Human Heart is one of those interesting failures that never quite live up to their potential. Its tale of an Eskimo and a half-Indian Canadian girl who first meet in the children's hospital he has been taken to by Patrick Bergin's ambiguous mapmaker and whose paths cross again in WW2 until the firebombing of Dresden brings matters to ahead may offer a wide canvas, but the director seems to lose his way and a considerable amount of audience involvement en route.
Re-edited after a lukewarm Cannes screening and boasting three script editors and more producers than extras, it never reaches the heart or emotions, with an ending that seems too contrived than inevitable while as an academic exercise the script's ambitions never seem fully realised. Jason Scott Lee gives a good lead performance and individual scenes stick in the memory - the lovers bouncing on top of a barrage balloon, the vividly realised firebombing and Bergin's chillingly piquish rationale for targeting it - but it's hard not to feel that something got lost in the edit.
Shot in 70mm but only shown in 35mm, the original 65mm negative for Ward's first cut is rumored to still exist, but the Region 1 NTSC DVD is from the European theatrical release version, though it does at least include 4 deleted scenes. Ann Parillaud fans will also be particularly disappointed to note that the striking and notorious UK poster art has not been used.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"Map "stays true to course.
Added 12/28/2007
This movie has an interesting lead-in and is a romantic drama. It is well written and acted.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
