''The Good Heart'' is an Icelandic

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

written and directed by

Dagur Kári Dagur Kári (born Dagur Kári Pétursson; 12 December 1973) is an Icelandic film director. Early life and education He was born in Paris, France, to Icelandic parents. The family returned to Iceland when he was 3 years old. After attending loca ...

, starring Brian Cox and

Paul Dano Paul Franklin Dano (; born June 19, 1984) is an American actor. He began his career on Broadway before making his film debut in ''The Newcomers'' (2000). He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for his role in '' L.I.E.' ...

. It debuted at the

2009 Toronto International Film Festival The 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 10 and September 19, 2009. The opening night gala presented the Charles Darwin biography ''Creation''. ''The Young Victoria'', based ...

Plot

Short-tempered

bartender A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but a ...

Jacques ( Brian Cox) has a heart-attack. Young homeless man Lucas (

) fails in a suicide attempt. They share a room in the hospital. Jacques becomes obsessed with helping Lucas, even snooping through his medical records before finally tracking him down. Reluctantly, Lucas agrees to come to the bar, and Lucas is given a sparsely furnished room. Jacques trains Lucas as a bartender, where Lucas resists Jacques’ cynicism and belittling of the customers. Jacques wishes to coach Lucas to become his successor, but feels that Lucas is too soft toward guests. Lucas allows April (

Isild Le Besco Isild Le Besco (born 22 November 1982) is a French actress and filmmaker. She is of French and Algerian descent on her mother's side, and Vietnamese and Breton on her father's. She has starred in many films, including ''Sade'' (2000), a French ...

) to stay in his room, but Jacques tells Lucas that he should send her away. However, Lucas and April get married and both leave. Reluctantly Jacques allows April to come back, because he finds it important that the bar will stay after his retirement or death, and therefore that his intended successor Lucas stays. Lucas is jealous about April's interaction with guests, and they break up. Jacques gets softer and Lucas less so. Lucas is killed after being hit by a car. His heart goes to Jacques, who has been waiting for a donor for a heart transplant. Although he always refused to sell his bar, he does so now, and starts living in the tropics, where he has friends who supplied the coffee for his bar.

Cast

* Brian Cox as Jacques *

as Lucas *

Stéphanie Szostak Stéphanie Szostak (born August 5, 1975) is a French actress who started her career in the early 2000s. Szostak is best known for having appeared in the films '' The Devil Wears Prada'', ''Dinner for Schmucks'', ''Iron Man 3'', and ''R.I.P.D.'' Sz ...

as Sarah *

as April *

Nicolas Bro Nicolas Bro (born 16 March 1972) is a Danish actor born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Background Bro grew up in a family of actors; his mother is Danish actress :da:Helle Hertz, Helle Hertz and father is the actor :da:Christoffer Bro, Christoffer Br ...

as Ib Dolby

Reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film an approval rating of 30%, based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Box office

The film received a domestic total of $20,930 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and in other countries, the movie received a total $322,888, making the total movie box office $343,818 worldwide.

References

External links

* * * * * * 2009 films English-language French films English-language Icelandic films Films directed by Dagur Kári French independent films Icelandic independent films 2000s English-language films 2000s French films {{indie-film-stub