SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Charming and brutal

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

If you want films with happy endings thats all good and well but to understand the world there isn't any use in putting on a blindfold, just look what America is doing in voting in bush.If there is truth it is that we are all flawed and in some way looking, without knowing it, for a way out. The difference between us is in what options you have. Here is a brilliant film which unlike Hollywood shows us real people, though not entirely common, who seek, in their own ways, an out. Isn't the question here not how it disgusts you but how disgusting the world can be, and don't we all in some way play a small part in it. Who hasn't seen porn therefore who isn't responsible, there is no high moral ground, Moodysson is not responsible for your horror he is trying to show you, what is in some way, behind it.

If you loved Lilja 4Ever - there's something wrong with you. You won't love this film - that's for sure - unless there's something wrong with you. This film is nearly - but only nearly - unwatchable. And I take that as a sign of its success. Had we been in any way aroused by what we saw, had we been allowed to distance ourselves from the suffering we saw, had Moodysson failed to reveal the conflicted, ambivalent motivations underlying the actions of these characters - who say little but reveal much - the film would be another Requiem For a Dream - but it isn't. You won't watch this film twice - unless there is something wrong with you. But it's honest in the way few films dealing with the subject are. I don't think it pretends to be representative of the porn industry as a whole - but it does remind us that our consumption of porn has a price. This is not an enjoyable movie. It shouldn't be an enjoyable movie. But is it well thought out? Well executed? Well acted? Important. Yes, it is. It's been awhile since Sweden has produced a movie that has shocked complacent audiences - for the past few decades it's been churning out silly nostalgia-driven films. I loved Show Me Love - but this is a far superior film.

My overall impression of this film is that it is a bleak parody of the popular Reality TV program "Big Brother", featuring a sad group of people trying (and mostly failing) to make an amateur porn film. There is actually very little sex, and no explicit penetration is seen on screen. The atmosphere is anything but erotic: The director and players flail about in a sort of listless, stoned state much of the time, and at one point the male porn actor falls asleep while the camera rolls. Meanwhile, the porn director's reclusive son hides in his room, growing ever paler, alienated from everyone. The film seems to me to be about the degradation of pornography, but more so about the pointlessness and anguish of these broken lives, seen through the lens of a Reality TV program not many would watch.This film is a surprising change of style for Moodysson. It is challenging, unpleasant, and destined to be misunderstood.

...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.