Open Hearts is far from inaccessible, but it demands a higher level of concentration than most big-budget movies do. The drama exists in a glance or a nod, or in a slight hesitation in speech.
Comment
04/04/03
Open Hearts (2003)
96
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:55
Fresh:53
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: Pulsing with honesty, this film lays bare the rawness of human emotion with a story made all the more believable thanks to its gritty, low-budget approach.
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: In Susanne Bier's achingly tender drama, filmed according to the tenets of the Dogme 95 collective, the fates of two couples are forever altered in the blink of an eye. Joachim (Nicolaj Lie Kaas)... [More]
Starring: Sonja Richter, Nicolaj Lie Kaas, Mads Mikkelsen, Paprika Steen
Director: Susanne Bier
Reviews for Open Hearts
Director Susanne Bier and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen draw attention away from the famous Dogme gimmick... and pull us into a surprisingly powerful emotional snafu.
04/01/03
What Open Hearts does best is capture the raw, frank essence of hurt.
03/28/03
There is no doubting the heart-rending impact of the story. But because it is made clear from the start that there is no chance of an uplifting ending, viewers may grow restless.
03/28/03
the ardent, unguarded performances that drive Open Hearts...have a resonant accumulative tone of authentic poignancy that drowns out the picture's shortcomings.
03/28/03
Simply deliciously top-heavy with pain, bitterness, release, and fervor --- and pregnant with unabashed authenticity.
03/25/03
Open Hearts' four lead characters (subtly, wonderfully played) shatter, then piece themselves back together before our eyes.
03/23/03
It is as emotionally raw and wrenching as life itself.
03/21/03
Open Hearts is a heart-wrenching soap opera that even The Young and the Restless can't compete with.
03/21/03
The synopsis sounds melodramatic (which it is), but it's also funny, sweet, and surprisingly engaging.
03/21/03
It crackles with chemistry that feels both spontaneous and carefully layered, and, like the best Dogma entries, it takes a potentially sudsy premise and lays it bare until all that's left is the humanity.
03/20/03
An emotionally honest character piece that avoids moralizing or offering soggy excuses.
03/20/03
Biers crafts her familiar story with equal doses of austerity and sympathy.
03/19/03
A picture of lovely simplicity and directness that reveals something of the complexity of the human heart with marvelous understatement.
03/17/03
As the characters' hearts are buffeted by fate, resilient and changeable and raw as they are, we take an enormous interest in how they end up.
03/14/03
Your wife ran over a guy, made him a paraplegic and now you're sleeping with his fiancee. You got a problem with that?
03/14/03
the best Dogme film to date
03/08/03
Open Hearts, like all good melodramas, is ruthless in its insistence that people are dragged, uncomprehending, in the wake of events.
03/07/03
A movie that really works.
03/07/03
The cast seems to have burrowed into the material.
03/07/03
Latest News for Open Hearts
March 02, 2006:
Dr. Dorian Prepares for "Open Hearts"
"Scrubs" star Zach Braff, who made quite the impression with his debut movie, "Garden State," has chosen his second directorial project: a remake of the 2003... More...
February 16, 2006:
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Look like the next Bond flick, "Casino Royale," will feature not only a brand-new actor as 007 (Daniel Craig) but a relatively unknown Dane called Mads Mikkelson as... More...
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