UNTAMED HEART
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
Running Length: 1:43 Rated: PG-13 (Sexual situations, language)
Starring: Christian Slater, Marisa Tomei, Rosie Perez, Kyle Secor Director: Tony Bill Producers: Tony Bill and Helen Buck Bartlett Screenplay: Tom Sierchio Music: Cliff Eidelman Released by MGM
Caroline (Marisa Tomei) is a waitress at a diner who lives with her parents and constantly gets dumped by her boyfriends. Adam (Christian Slater) is a loner who works as a busboy at the same place. As a child, he was an orphan with a bad heart, a condition which has not improved with time. The two are brought together when Adam saves Caroline from a pair of rapists. Together, they form a bond and must fight to keep their love alive despite overwhelming pressure from almost every direction.
Get out the Kleenexes and violins. If there's a method of audience manipulation that UNTAMED HEART misses, it would surprise me. This is melodrama of the worst kind. It goes straight for the heart without bothering to consider that the people watching it might actually have brains. The best single word to describe this movie is schmaltz.
It wouldn't be so bad if the manipulation was skillful. After all, that's what most tear-jerkers are - films that play upon the emotions. Unfortunately, UNTAMED HEART is saddled with heavy-handed direction and a script that should have been thrown into the garbage. Its moments of "great emotional power" are more likely to have audience members grimacing than getting misty-eyed.
The dialogue is embarrassing too. The people in this movie say some of the dumbest things. If I met someone who was spewing this kind of nonsense, it would be difficult for me to keep from breaking into fits of uncontrolled laughter. Sometimes, I think screenwriters should sit back and think about lines before they commit them to paper. If the intent had been to parody bad melodramas, the dialogue in UNTAMED HEART would have been brilliant. However, this is supposed to be a serious film.
The casting is curious. Christian Slater may be one of the more versatile actors in his age bracket, but he is horribly miscast here. For whatever reason, he never gets a handle on Adam. Most of the time, his performance is rigid - there are moments when it seems that rigor mortis has set in. On those rare occasions when he relaxes and does a little bit of acting, it becomes jarringly apparent how poor he is in the rest of the movie. For someone who has made his reputation playing cocky, somewhat obnoxious characters, a role requiring subtlety is clearly beyond his grasp.
Discussing Marisa Tomei's performance is more difficult. She's an actress with an abundance of energy and spunk, and it shines through even in this dreary little film. She possesses a tremendous ability to use facial expressions to convey emotions - a pout, a smile, a widening of the eyes. Despite those physical tools, however, she's not particularly good here. The reason is simple: she can't do dialogue, at least not in a serious or believable manner. Admittedly, most of her lines are trite or silly, but that's not a valid excuse. Her whiny voice is only occasionally capable of saying things that sound heartfelt. After viewing Ms. Tomei's standout performance in MY COUSIN VINNY, I had high hopes for her in this movie. Now I think she would do better to stick to comedy, where she seems better suited.
Then there's the issue of chemistry. In romances, this is a critical element, and it's completely absent here. Of course, it doesn't help that both of the main characters are flat, but the actors don't connect either. This is another example of where more appropriate casting might have produced a marginally better film, although the performances of Slater and Tomei are clearly not the fundamental problem with UNTAMED HEART.
At the outset, I thought this film was going to be a FRANKIE AND JOHNNY for a younger crowd. While the Pacino/Pfeiffer outing isn't my favorite film, it has a few things to recommend it. Too bad the same can't be said for UNTAMED HEART. Unless you're a fan of Slater or Tomei, or hopelessly addicted to sappy, ineptly-handled love stories, I would be hard pressed to come up with any reason to see this movie.
Rating: 5.4 (D+, *1/2)
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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