An Exercise In Nonsense

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I could not watch this. I watched maybe a total of 1/3 of it, since I had no interest whatsoever in watching any of the pornographic scenes. For the record, I only even wanted to watch it because the director did "Show Me Love" ("Fucking Åmål"), a favorite of mine; "Lilya 4- Ever"and "Mammoth", both highly recommended, as well as "Together" and "We Are The Best", which are admittedly only alright. This is obviously his worst. At least the most experimental and explicit, therefore not to my liking. It is pretty much pornography with scenes in between that serve as interludes. How disappointing. You might disagree, but to each their own. For anyone who may or may not be willing to admit their interest, the film is notable for its explicit imagery, including close-ups of vaginal reconstruction surgery, an anal sex scene without the use of lubrication, and a masturbation scene with a toothbrush. From the director: "I have cooked you a delicious meal, but I'm not going to chew it for you."

A very underrated movie. A powerful comment on the disgusts of the modern world: alienation, the lack of care and the ever-present porn (I'm not against all porn). Lukas Moodysson wants to show us that there is a lot of sickness in this world, and he succeeds. Yes, it's disgusting in some parts and yes, it shows vomiting and sex. I understand people who say it's too much. But: why should we live our lives without seeing disgusting things at all, ever? This film makes you think of the world, and I don't see anything wrong with that. I believe this is a must to see for everybody, especially for those who think there are no real problems in the Western world.

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.

Having loved 'Together' and admired, for the most part, 'Lilya 4-Ever' (as well as his short films), I was dreadfully disappointed with this new work from Moodyson. In an interview about 'A Hole On My Heart' Moodyson stated that he thought it was his best and most complex film, before saying that he didn't know what the film was supposed to be about, not offering any explanation other than 'it has many layers'. Such statements reveal entirely the reason behind the film's failure. Depsite Moodyson's assertion of complexity, there is simply nothing in this 90+ minute film that could not have been adequately communicated in a short. Simply juxtaposing unpleasant images of cosmetic surgery and action men figures with home-made pornography does not constitute a complex statement on anything. In fact the film is hopelessly meandering and one has the increasing feeling that it was 'discovered' in the editing room. I'm very interested in non-narrative film-making, and I don't need a 'story' to communicate events to me, but it is evident to me when there is a severe paucity of drive and ideas, and that feeling was evident throughout a viewing of this film. It concerns me that this film will be defended by people who feel that sitting through the unpleasant content constitutes some sort of test of intellectual rigour and that those who didn't like it are not prepared to 'face up' to the reality this film purports to present. In fact the simple truth is that this is an empty film, with a painful lack of understanding of how to dramatise ideas. I really hope Moodyson comes up with something better next time - I think his talents outstrip nonsense like this.