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Released by: Film Movement
Released on: December 4, 2012.
Director: Jennifer Devoldí¨re
Cast: Mélanie Laurent, Guillame Goiux, Michel Blanc
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
“Quirky,†“Jewish,†and, “French†- that about best sums up The Day I saw Your Heart. It's a well-made, well-acted, decently-scripted piece of fairly predictable storytelling about screwy family relationships and how a young woman can follow her own path to navigate them successfully.
Justine (Laurent) is a radiologist tech who can't seem to finish anything she starts: She has a strained-at-best relationship with her father, Eli (Blanc), she lives on her step-sister's sofa, and she has a very long string of ex-boyfriends still about. Her sister is trying to adopt a child while they then also discover that their stepmother is pregnant, even though dad is around 60. Given how poorly he did with raising Justine - by everyone's account, especially Justine's - he's not looking forward to it, if it's going to be a girl.
In the midst of all this new life Justine finds another new flame, a shoe-selling boxer named Sami (Goiux). He tracks her down to her lab and, using a fake injury, gets her to x-ray him and see what he's all about. Now, granted - not every item in the film is this transparent (ha!) but you can get the gist of the obvious metaphorical sense of the movie. It's in this way, too, that the story telegraphs so much of itself as to try and rob the movie of its narrative bite. The story that follows is of course complicated by a loving father who made himself distant and, thus, made a headstrong, independent daughter. And the two of them only come to realizing how close they are when it's seemingly too late to do anything about it.
Eli is nebbish almost to the point of distraction, carrying on golf-dates with Justine's exes rather than spending more time with her. But as he sees possibility in the new life he's created he also seeks to remedy his own and, thus, after some initial comic bumbling, really does try to reach out and better himself. But his own earlier sense of failure and disconnection - while not real - has been enough to force a wedge that will take quite a bit emotionally from both he and Justine to overcome. It's this that's the lynchpin of the film's central story as it's also central to Justine coming into her own as a woman and an artist.
The performances again here are excellent, especially Laurent and Blanc as the daughter and father who seem to just mess up each other's lives by default. The story, one of personal reconciliation sort-of free of confrontation, is sincere enough to not be messily told at all. But it lacks the gravitas of true introspection by relying more on clichés and obvious settings rather than buying its own art-as-relief premise that's shared amongst several of the characters.
Audio/Video/Extras:
The DVD presents the film in 1.85:1 widescreen format and really holds up well, especially in the scenes involving the radiology lab and the x-ray displays. Rainy night scenes, cozy interiors and even a kickin' nightclub are all well-balanced visually, with light levels not competing with one another. Likewise, the available Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and 2.0 French-language-only audio tracks carry the film's hip soundtrack nicely. English subtitles are the only available option there as well.
Being a Film Movement DVD the short film presented here is an animated short (3:53) titled, Don't Tell Santa You're Jewish. And, like the obviousness of the main film's title, that's just what this story is about: A young girl is nervous about sitting on Santa's lap until she discovers that Santa is also Jewish. It's charming enough and carries the message of possibility and coping for a young girl in what she thinks is an intimidating situation.
The Final Word:
The Day I Saw Your Heart has an obvious title that displays its obvious storytelling technique and that's too bad because the performances here are quite well done.
