Heartless (2009) ***

It's a shame that Philip Ridley hasn't made more films (and claims he's not going to make any more). Of his only three features, Heartless (2009) being his latest, it's the weakest of the three, which is especially unfortunate given that it arrived a whopping 14 years after his previous feature, The Passion Of Darkly Noon (1995) (my review here). Ridley has been incredibly prolific though—he's written books, plays, painted, worked on music and more. I have much exploring to do when it comes to his output—having only been introduced to his work through his 1990 film debut The Reflecting Skin (my review here) (which had been on my radar for some time) for the first time last summer.

Heartless is a Faustian tale about troubled and lonely twenty-something Jamie (Jim Sturgess), who endures one tragedy after another in a life almost comically bereft of lightness. It's a solid film but one that —despite having themes carried over from his previous two pictures and containing touches of his dramatic, surrealist style—feels too straightforward for Ridley. The figurative monsters of The Reflecting Skin (vampires) and The Passion Of Darkly Noon (witches) are brought to literal life here (in the form of "demons"), albeit (unfortunately) via not-so-great CGI. The filmmaking is nowhere near as electric as his other two films, which both had assuredly unique voices.

Again, while it ties in well with his other films when viewed as a whole (fire, outcasts, cruelty, sacred objects, and boys/man-children struggling to make sense of their lives all play big parts), Heartless is a messier affair that dips into more familiar tropes (particularly horror) through mixed quality execution. The narrative is sloppy and the characters underwritten, which would be forgivable if the visuals were more interesting or the story more engaging. Despite this, I enjoyed it—I just wish Ridley had/would make more movies!

You can find Philip Ridley Feature Films Ranked list here.