Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Memorergi good film but with many flaws

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

ElijahCSkuggs Mr. Moodysson made a flick here that has very little rhyme, but a lot of reason. No, wait...it has a lot of rhyme, but zero reason. No! It's...uh, there's a little bit from...hmmm.As soon as A Hole in My Heart began, I realized taking that little bit of Nyquil probably wasn't the greatest of ideas. But luckily, I'm a tough guy, and I managed to keep focus on Lukas's lil experiment. Because that's what this was kinda, an outlined experiment. Well, I think so anyways.For me, I split the movie into separate aspects. One ideal is for the three adults (the Dad, his friend and the porn actress) of the movie, and the other is for the son. With the three adults your shown immaturity, delusion, confusion, and just a whole wave of emotional problems. Not far away is the son; overly thoughtful, a shut-in, quiet...and simply appears the polar opposite to the three on the other side of the door. And whatever story this movie was trying to present, in my opinion, lies within comparing the two sides to another other, and hoping they would find a common ground. And even that was hard to do, as all the characters (even the son) were rather unlikable, and all relied on pity.Was the film intriguing? Yeah, I guess. Was it well directed? I thought so. Was it entertaining? Not really. Is there a deeper meaning than simply comparing the people to one another, and not trying to look at them as useless human beings? Maybe. But if you really want to do such a thing, I think you're already fighting an uphill battle.From my point of view there's not much to learn from this film, as it was mostly full of negative things. And I'm curious to know Lukas's point of the film. I would guess it was a very simple idea. I could easily say this film's underlying message is to get an education. But I could be dead wrong. Watch this flick if you like to ponder about movies afterwards. Don't if you don't.

davidevoid In many ways i can understand why people would take a disliking to this film, it is very difficult... but it's also one of the most human films i've seen for a long long time.It's a film for people who don't want to go to see a film to 'enjoy it' it's a film that is what it is, it's not a sing and dance, it's not an entertainment piece.I found this film very interesting indeed and found all the characters to have a lot of depth to them. This film is much closer to Lilja 4-ever rather than Together, so that may sway you to one way or the other. What makes this harder than Lilja 4-ever is that it isn't addressing issues in a very forward manner, it isn't always clear what this film is 'trying to say'.But yeah, if you give it the chance and don't come to this film for a laugh or to enjoy yourself and are actually interested in film in it's purest form, then this should prove of worth and an interesting purchase.

Markieman234 Hmph.. this film is strange, unsatisfying, and dull in places. It took a little more effort than it should have to watch until the end. There were a couple of interesting things Moodysson threw in that I noticed, one being that certain random objects get blurred out in most scenes. Initially I thought these to be only objects with brand names on, but upon closer inspection certain parts of clothing get blurred as well. Number two was an almost clever short reference to a far superior work of his, Lilya 4ever. In one of the films many short camera takes you see the porn starlet on top of a bridge, looking out at the road, making the viewer think she's considering suicide, as is the case in the final scene of the aforementioned movie. Having seen Moodysson's other work, "Show Me Love", "Lilya 4ever" and another title investigating life in a convent, another similarity shows up in this film; his rash, abundantly random use of trashy euro trance music. The director uses this to speed up the characters movement and their on screen activities, an unnecessary addition that only aroused annoyance. Perhaps the only remotely interesting quote from the film was shouted by the porn starlet shortly after being assaulted by the male porn actor: "Men are the ones who rape, who kill people, who start wars. Without men, humanity would be far superior". Let us hope that Moodysson's next piece of work will be more on par with his more credible titles.

bastard wisher ...from all the searing images on screen. Make no mistake, this film is hard to watch and not really a whole lot of fun. That said, I do think it an ultimately affective and certainly audacious film that earns my respect even if it doesn't quite match up to Moodysson's previous film, the brilliant "Lilya 4-Ever". I will say that I think it lacks a bit of the sure-handedness that rendered like-minded extreme films like "Irreversible" or "Requiem for a Dream" ultimately so powerful. If anything, this film is like a well-meaning, endearing little brother to those films. It tries hard and gets a lot of mileage out of sheer effort, but ultimately it falls a little short. Part of the problem is the noticeable lack of the tender humanity found in Moodysson's previous films, including the bleak "Lilya 4-Ever". What ultimately caused that film to be as outstanding as it was the love that Moodysson obviously showed for his characters. It prevented the film from being the heavy-handed parade of depression that "A Hole in My Heart" sometimes threatens to become. It seems here that Moodysson has lost some of his delicate skill working with characters. If anything, he shows pity for them surely, but I'd hesitate to say compassion. The unrelenting, single-minded oppressiveness of the film threatens to become stifling, literally compelling one to wish the characters would venture outside their squalid apartment. Unfortunately, the few scenes that do occur outside of the apartment prove to be some of the film's weakest, most heavy-handed moments, revealing a newfound pretentiousness apparent in Moodysson's approach, as do the solemn, too-earnest and obvious voice-over monologues and dream sequences.Due to the relentless heaviness of the film, it unfortunately begins to have a somewhat numbing effect, losing it's emotional engagement and verges on a becoming a endless stream of ever-more revolting images, as if challenging the audience with it's shockingness. Fortunately some humor does creep into the film at odd moments and ultimately keeps the film grounded. Another plus is that the film manages to avoid being overtly preachy for the most part. Moodysson doesn't seem all that interested in pointing fingers, but rather seems to declare the entire world as being hopelessly dysfunctional and leaving it at that. One of it's few acknowledgeable targets is reality television, however. At times the allusions are clever, as when Tess, the amateur porn-starlet to be, mentions her goal of getting on the show "Big Brother", but ultimately end up rather heavy-handed the more Moodysson stresses the motif. Playing into the reality TV theme, surely, is the film's use of cheap, low-quality digital video, which has the intended affect, but overall, i think, causes the film to carry less weight than it might have otherwise. Part of what makes bleak, uncompromising films like "Irreversible", and indeed "Lilya 4-Ever", succeed is their sheer competence. Regardless of their assaultiveness, they are still undeniably well-crafted films. Unfortunately "A Hole in My Heart" doesn't have this to fall back on. If anything, it is overtly amateurish, sometimes distractingly so. Particularly when the film attempts flashier techniques it comes off a little like a film student version of "Requiem for a Dream" in it's style. The ultimate success of the film though, is that the homemade quality eventually stops being distracting. It manages to create enough of it's own cinematic sensibility that the audience can adjust to it and comfortably engage the film on it's own terms. One all the initial flaws make themselves apparent, they quickly become significantly less noticeable and the film manages to hold itself together rather well, in the long run. Also, I have to respect the film for it's sheer integrity and conviction. Even if it verges on over-earnest or heavy-handed at times, there is no question that it is refreshingly uncompromising. In many ways it reveals pseudo-rebellious social critiques like "Fight Club" and "Natural Born Killers" for what they really are: hypocritical, half-hearted films that want it both ways. "A Hole in My Heart" is nothing if not 100% behind it's convictions. As I said, though, the film doesn't manage to approach the the brilliance of "Lilya 4-Ever" by a long stretch. If anything, comparing the two only highlights the aspects of the previous film that make it the masterpiece that "A Hole in My Heart" doesn't quite manage to be (although it gets many points for trying). Ultimately though, i do think I prefer it to his earlier, gentler films (which are good in their own right as well). Certainly I would consider Moodysson one of the more remarkable relatively young filmmakers. Clearly his heart is in the right place, even if it has a hole in it.