Poseidon-3 Review of Changing Hearts

Changing Hearts (2002)

Mawkish, homemade movie full of silly, unbelievable characters.

[11 May 2006]

A few name actors accepted roles in this low-budget, derivative and treacly serio-comedy about the emotions of cancer patients and their loved ones. Holly plays a self-employed beautician who makes wigs for women facing cancer. Soon, she finds herself wearing them as it is revealed that she has her own serious case of the disease. Brooding Somerhalder is a male nurse assigned to care for her during her stay at a rather old hospital. They begrudgingly form a relationship that winds up being mutually beneficial. Dunaway plays a bitter and cranky patient whose radiation treatment creates the need for some of Holly's hairpieces. Meanwhile, Skeritt haunts the hospital, continuously pleading with Dunaway to marry him. McClurg pounds the floor trying to hunt down Dunaway and make her eat her oatmeal in lieu of her more-favored Hershey bars. The cast take turns meandering through a cemetery next to the hospital as they examine their various emotional entanglements. By the end, one person is gone, one is cured and one has been changed forever. Holly actually gives a rather strong performance, injecting a lot of emotion and heart into her role. Dunaway, on the other hand, chews up the scenery and spits it out in virtually every take. It isn't hard to see who was running the show in her scenes (hint: it wasn't the director!) It doesn't help that she's decked out in an atrocious, flipped-out, grey wig for the bulk of the film. At this point in her career, she simply cannot quit gyrating her mouth, rolling her eyes and just generally over-emoting all over the place. Somerhalder does a decent job as well, trying to add some humanity to a thinly drawn character. Skeritt has nothing to do, thus he flounders desperately, trying to create any sort of character out of his plot device of a role. The script is the primary culprit here. It's often unclear, illogical and highly unoriginal. Holly has scenes in a beauty shop that reek of leftover quips and caricatures from another, better play/film. This section plays like "Tin Magnolias". There is a gaggle of uppity, hat-wearing shrews led by Carroll (and including Coolidge, of all people) who appear frequently to comment on the goings on. The hospital is unlike any true establishment of its kind with loads of space, huge rooms, no one around and Christmas wreaths that hang outside right up until Easter! The film is edited with a jigsaw, featuring clear and obvious cuts within scenes and continuity issues. It's a clichéd, predictable, maudlin mess, worthwhile only to fans of Holly who might enjoy seeing her tackle an emotional role or folks who enjoy watching Dunaway camp it up and ham it up excessively only to emerge again near the end dressed up and behaving normally.