Better Late Then Never

A Brilliant Conflict

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I really loved this movie (and I still do, but)– just trust your own feelings about the character/story and don't turn on the audio commentary. It will ruin the movie for you since it makes perfectly clear that Philip Ridley clearly does not understand the character he is trying to portray, Ridley clearly belongs to the crowd that make Jaime's life a living hell. I don't argue that we all are bad, because we all are humans and mankind is a disgusting, brutal, reckless creation, but this does not mean that Jamie is a bad guy like the others. This is making the victim the bad guy. Nothing that Jamie does (especially nothing that he does by his own will/unmotivated by others or the circumstances) is nearly as mean as the people bullying him because of something he did not choose. And it is not in the last second that Jamie „realizes" that the world is beautiful, unlucky persons like Jamie are absolutely aware that life CAN be beautiful – just not for them, that is for people who are screwed from their birth on, by the wrong looks, the wrong parents, the wrong genes, curses that allow you not a single chance etc. . And it is people like Philip Ridley who do not understand them at all and are trying to turn them bad in order to have a justification for their bad luck – shame on you, Mr. Ridley (the only person who is definitely heartless is you, Philip Ridley). What is true, though, is that the world is not fair at all, and people like Philip Ridley with obviously better luck and little understanding of what it means to live on the other side support this situation. And it is true that Jamie wants to die, but actually what he really wants is (like he says) to be happy, be normal, have a chance to a normal happy life like other people with better luck, just: he does not get this chance, never, and nothing Jamie has ever done or will ever do will justify that HE is denied this chance. He is NOT the bad guy and with nothing does he deserve his fate, it is unfair and turning him into a „demon" does not change/justify this, Mr. Ridley, live with it and don't make it worse. And since Jamie is ever denied any chance, the only salvation (from his unlucky fate) he can get is dying, but it is not what he truly wants, he just won't ever get anything else. Maybe Mr. Ridley should rather make films about pretty teens partying all night, looks like this is the world he knows something about instead of being dialectic and doing victims of this deeply unfair world further injustice (in order to come to grips with the injustice, but you can't, that's the point about injustice, it just is unjust, no need to blame the victim).

I applaud the writers of Heartless on their interesting ideas about the function of demons in our world and also about the way in which deals with human beings are made. While they do not stick to the ideas of the more typical demon myths, they came up with some very interesting methods. However, it must also be noted that this film is for the most part, completely nonsensical. In many ways, it was difficult to follow and by the end of the film, little was ever fully explained. The script to this "artistic" film reads like the incoherent ramblings of a first year film student.

(spoiler) the message in this movie was totally Unclear to me "sometimes you have to see the dark before you can see the light/stars something like that , OK all i saw was someone with schizophrenic type visions ,who committed a horrific murder and did not deserve the ( spoiler) happiness at the end, i mean there was really good acting in this movie and up until the point where the rent boy was killed i was enjoying it, then it turned into a pile of garbage. because i completely lost respect for Jamie after that. i gained no life changing experience from this as some others did, all i learned was that brutal killers have beautiful souls-go figure.

Heartless, a directorial debut by Shekhar Suman. I heard Shekhar Suman sharing in one of the TV show during movie promotions that this movie is literally and figuratively heartless. True upto an extent. Shekhar Suman indeed dons the hat of a director in a very good manner. Though, I need to admit that this movie has its own share of flaws and fine points. The first half of the movie is not built up logically and the characters are not defined nicely. I kept on wondering at the fast-motion love which blossomed between the lead pair Adhyayan Suman as Aditya Singh / Addi and Ariyana Ayam as Ria and tried to figure out what actually clicked between them. Why Aditya seemed to be unsure of himself, insecure in life, rebellious at times in spite of his businesswoman mother Ms. Gayatri Singh (played by Deepti Naval) showering him with her love, care, concern…it is not justified properly. The first half gives a feeling that it is going to be the struggle of Aditya to cope up with a deadly heart disease, rather win over the disease with the support of Ria's love. But, when the movie began, the noting said that it focuses on Anesthesia Awareness (a scary situation wherein a patient seemingly unconscious to the doctors is able to hear sounds and experience pain). So, my thoughts moved to the direction that probably, it could be a case of medical negligence. Could it be a love story or be a Medical Thriller…?But the plot changes its track in the second half which kept me glued to the screen better than the first half ...the story begins here. With unpredictable and shocking twists, suspense is built up, still I wish the subject could have been dealt more clearly (though it is heartless on my part to say so). Adhyayan looks good on screen, especially during the song sequences. Ariyana delivered an average performance, though looks pretty on screen. Shekhar Suman as Cardiologist Samar Saxena is effortless in his performance. But the non-clarity (at times) of the script gets translated to his certain scenes as well. Deepti Naval is great as Aditya's mother, whose head-strong shrewd personality is shown on one side and on the other hand, a doting mother who lived for her son. Om Puri as Dr. Trehaan's role is minimal yet pivotal to the movie. Thumbs up for the exceedingly well shot scenes (especially Dubai) by Cinematographer Derrick Fong, a few nice songs (though out of place at times), a heart-touching emotional mother-son scene towards the end, no melodrama overpowering the characters… and above all a welcome break from the regular story