Wheres the Beating Heart?
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie’s plot. When main character Quoyle in this story is learning to be a reporter, his boss tells him to find the “beating heart” of a story. Ironically, it seems that the makers of this movie didn’t head that advice. This is the first time I’ve seen a movie where I hadn’t read the book, and felt that I was missing the point *because* I hadn’t read it. The film has great elements that make it an enjoyable experience: Eloquent dialogue, breathtaking landscapes and seascapes, quirky characters that you care about. But it doesn’t gel together to form an emotional punch that makes you say “Oh! That’s what this movie is about.” In fact, Quoyle narrates a bit at the end of the movie, probably taken straight from Annie Proulx’s book for all I know, and tells us what the movie was about. At that point, for me, it’s too late — if the film doesn’t say it, I don’t want the character to say it in a speech. Like so many movies these days
