Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

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

The subject of Hungry Hearts is an original and challenging one, and certainly not the usual kind of drama involving a couple that you might expect. Saverio Costanzo, the director of The Solitude of Prime numbers, clearly doesn't do the common subject matter in his films, even when working in America.Even the manner in which Jude and Mina meet is far from common, and it's clearly not the most romantic of situations. Both are trapped within the small restroom of a Chinese restaurant in New York, where Jude has embarrassingly had a bad case of the runs. The two of them are not only unable to open the door but they can't even open a window for fresh air. Nonetheless, they become a couple, Mina gets pregnant and they get married. Jude is American and Mina is Italian, but their differences go deeper than that, and it's the birth of their child that brings them starkly to the surface.Even before the baby is born, Mina is concerned about her pregnancy, not eating much and having nightmares. She consults a fortune-teller, develops strange ideas about the child and is determined to have a natural birth, involving hospitals and doctors as little as possible. When the baby is born, she becomes over-protective, refusing to let the baby breath the filthy air of NY city and unwilling even to let the baby take antibiotics for an infection. Adam and the doctor are concerned that the baby appears malnourished and isn't developing. Thereafter, a struggle develops between Jude and Mina to ensure that the baby doesn't come to any harm.It's not a bitter struggle but a cautious one, where even the authorities are unwilling to intervene on such a sensitive issue. This is where Costanzo show his ability not to provide standard dramatic points or stray into melodrama, but rather explore the situation in a more balanced way in line with the nature of the main characters. It's not perfect however. The storytelling feels a little schematic (with Mina's premonitory nightmare and its realisation being just a little too neat), but it also feels patchy with a semi-improvised, handheld, indie, almost Dogme-like quality. Some high angle fish-eye views feel a little gratuitous as a means of presenting Mina 'distorted' perspective on reality. The performances are also variable, Driver not entirely convincing, Rohrwacher's English often difficult to make out.On the other hand the emotional charge of the reality of the situation still comes across effectively without having to rely on glossy cinematography or a melodramatic score, and you really get a sense of the seriousness of what is at stake. Presenting a balanced view of an unbalanced situation is tricky, but Alba Rohrwacher also makes Mina more sympathetic than you might expect, the young woman tortured in her own mind rather than just being deluded and dangerous. It's typically well-played by Rohrwacher with intense interiority.

In the beginning of this movie you get more or less the "romantic" story about how our two protagonists, Mina and Jude, got together, but things really start to get interesting when their child is on the way. During the pregnancy the viewer already experiences the opposite positions that each partner has about their baby. Mina, who is portrayed by and outstanding and excellent Alba Rohrwacher, has a rather extreme attitude towards modern medicine, nutrition and cleanness. Jude (Adam Driver) tries to be the supporting husband but after seeing that Mina's methods endanger their child, he is forced to act against his wife's will. This movie has a very realistic tone to it. There isn't much music to be heard and the colors are kept quite cool as well. Already in the first scene of the movie, where the couple meets in the bathroom you experience an awkward feeling that didn't really let go of me throughout the whole film. Maybe that is because the actions of all three main characters (including Jude's mother who also distributes a lot to the plot of this movie) seem somehow relatable even though they are sometime quite drastic. Especially Mina is an interesting character. She has those really extreme obsessions but somehow you still can relate to her and she feels like a real person and in no way stereotypical crazy. On the other hand there is Jude who really loves his wife and tries everything to be supportive of her but at some point that can't continue and so he is more or less forced to act against her interests for the good of their child. As a viewer I could understand both characters very well and it left me kind of torn between whom to sympathize with.All in all, it really is an enjoyable movie though it is more of a psychological drama than a thriller and my problem with it was that the plot got a bit boring in the middle part because the actions of the characters seem repetitive. Although the ending and the character portrayals were great it is not a must-watch and certainly not a movie for everyone.

Greetings again from the darkness. Everyone loves a good "How did you two meet?" story, and the best of these stories somehow makes the couple more interesting. It's pretty tough to beat the meet-cute of Jude and Mina in the opening scene from writer/director Saverio Costanzo … even if it does take place in the tight and pungent confines of restaurant restroom. It's a terrific start to a movie that has no real shot at getting better from there.Jude (an excellent Adam Driver) and Mina (Alba Rohrwacher) fall directly into bed and in love … directly from the outhouse. We catch glimpses of their romance, and quickly accept them as a well-suited, warm-yet-quirky couple. An unexpected pregnancy kicks off a gradual and troubling change in Mina. This change is turbo-charged once the baby arrives. Mina registers in the extreme of the mother's instincts vs. modern medicine debate. She is all about purity for her baby – food and environment. There is nothing wrong with that, right? Well, when the baby doesn't grow and develop, it's understandable that the dad might freak a bit, no matter how understanding or trusting he claims to be.The story becomes the unraveling of a once-promising relationship, as well as the unraveling of a once seemingly normal woman. With the tone of an early Roman Polanski movie, Costanzo's film (from Marco Franzoso's novel) has very real horror overtones, while playing out like a real life parenting drama … or a psychological thriller. The real turning point for Mina's character seems to occur after a Psychic Reading where the Clairvoyant labels her baby as an Indigo child. Mina believes this and her psychotic actions create the intense worries of Jude and his mother (Roberta Maxwell).With the current uproar of vaccinations, there is certainly a modern day link to the story line of mother's instincts vs. doctor's orders. But with a lawyer recommending kidnapping, and a triumvirate of desperate characters: father, mother, grandmother, there doesn't seem to be much factual data here … rather it's an effective scare tactic.

------------SPOILERS--------------------------- First scene: She enters in a bathroom in a movie theater set according to the sound the door does when she slams it. NO. It's not done on purpose!! It's called horrible set designer, horrible sound team!! They are stock in a toilets where he just had a poo that smells bad. That's how they meet. That's how we are supposed to establish a connection with the characters. OK. But all we can think of during this sequence shot is: WHEN THE HELL WILL YOU WASH YOUR HANDS, PIG??? But the director liked this take and said "it's OK, who cares? it'a detail!!" So they keep this take in spite the importance of this scene. And that's how everybody on the set must have act to abort this film "it's OK, who cares? it's just a detail!!" well ...i, I care!! because unfortunately I PAID TO SEE THIS Catastrophe!!!!! -The Director: Which one? The one who wasn't there or the one who was asleep or the one who thought that's enough to stick your camera to an actor's face to be called a director???? THERE IS SIMPLY NO STAGING IN THIS FILM. None. Nothing. Void. Absolute Nothingness. It is static, lazy, apathetic, i love Kiarostami and Cassavetes but here i was hoping that some TRANSFORMERS break a wall, that some AVENGER rip off half of the earth so that something happens, because a moving disaster is always better than a static disaster!!! It has the drama material for a short film and it makes a lame long long long long long 1h45 film. If you want to watch tiny innovations that makes a one room film a great film, watch UN AIR DE FAMILLE by Cédric Klapisch. -The actress is good but what can she do alone with Mister Apathy being the wheel? -The music: Flashdance!! out of the blue? why? for what? because "who cares?!!" remember? It was the crew leitmotiv while shooting. She is a vegan. He gives their baby meat behind her back. She enters, sees that and ... and some Hitchcock string waving from the sixties pop up in the middle of the silence!! THANKS DUDE TO TELL ME WHERE AND WHEN TO WORRY!! The fact is, the staging didn't made a suspense about her discovering that, so the strings are like a cannonball to say hello. A Pathetic attempt by the music to save the absence of staging. The sound: dreadful during the first scene then OK. -Finally: The message of the film: slightly dangerous: man has no balls anymore, they are sissy unable to protect there kids, it was better before???? And the final shot: a sunset after one a of the character's death, why? because the director hasn't been lazy enough? Because he has to deliver the lamest cliché ever for no meaning?? Or just to say one more time "who cares about this film? about this story? hey!! sunset!! isn't it nice?" ... ???? WTF?????????????????