Review of Heartbeats

I loved this film. I live in Montreal and just watched with a (I presume predominately French Canadian)audience in the theatre. It was highly amusing to watch it with fellow Montrealers who seemed to catch on to jokes and nuances and familiarities that other audiences would not catch on to, so in that regard, this film would mean something special and familiar to Montrealers, and comedic even, which would not transfer to other audiences.

On to the movie. The heart of it, in a nutshell, is the analysis of a boy-and-girl-best-friends' interactions with a third character, with themselves in their moments of solitude, and with each other. One of the things that drew me in so powerfully while watching it was the cinematography. The use of colours, the close-up shots, the slow-motion, the parallels, the motifs....... Suffice it to say that it is visually beautiful and paced just so, so as to create a captivating sense of anticipation. It definitely focuses just as much on silent scenes as it does on dialogue to convey emotion, if not more so.

Watch it if you want to learn more about Montrealers, about youth culture, or about neurotic characters. Or watch it to support a very young and very promising and exciting Talent: Xavier Dolan