Himlens hjärta (2008)

Director:

Simon Staho

Writers:

Peter Asmussen (writer)
Simon Staho (writer)

Release Date:

29 February 2008 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Two couples, old friends, end up in a heated debate over adultery at a dinner party.

Plot Keywords:

Dinner | Marriage | Home | Infidelity | House

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Ingemar Carlehed	...	Advokaten
Jakob Eklund	...	Ulf
Lena Endre	...	Susanna
Maria Lundqvist	...	Ann
Mikael Persbrandt	...	Lars

Also Known As:

Heaven's Heart (Canada: English title) (Europe: English title) (festival title)
Himlens hjerte (Denmark)

Runtime:

Germany:95 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

Sweden | Denmark

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Sweden:11 | Netherlands:6

Company:

Film i Väst

Elegant and engaging

Danish director has directed a marriage drama cast with four excellent Swedish actors. From beginning to end it is beautifully filmed, strongly acted and well written. The story involves two middle-aged married couples who live in lush houses, have good jobs and are set in their ways, perhaps too much so for some or all of them. The dinner conversation when the two couples spend an evening together is the elegant starter of the infidelity drama that follows. This is tough and sometimes excruciating drama, though it does have pieces of playful dialogue throughout; there is also a dose of sweetener added at the end, but interpret it as you wish.

The settings are restricted to a few rooms of their two houses and go along with a style of photography and direction that insists on intimacy and requires precision on the part of the performers. The chamber drama style has been compared to certain moments of Bergman's career, usually favourably. There are also some surprising moments where the director draws attention to himself, for instance by allowing the actors to look straight into the camera; I think this helps keep the film engaging for the interested viewer.

A sidenote on the film title. It's possible that this double-metaphor romantic cliché is meant as some sort of irony on the part of the director, but it refers to nothing in the movie and almost kept me from wanting to see the it. It's already hard enough for films like these to survive in theatres without sticking nonsense titles on them.