One from the Heart

ONE FROM THE HEART   **

Francis Ford Coppola

1982

IDEA:  A couple rethinks their relationship as they embark on simultaneous affairs with more seemingly ideal partners.

BLURB:  One from the Heart is a curious creation: an extravagant spectacle boasting all the aesthetic signifiers of a classical Hollywood musical but deprived of the attendant spirit and charm. In the elaborate, hyper-stylized artifice of its studio-simulacrum Las Vegas, and in the paper-thin romantic narrative that weaves indifferently through it, the film almost seems to perversely reject the titular “heart” foundational to the genre, so preoccupied is it with bombastic mise-en-scène. Coppola distends the pageantry – a lavish parade of neon signage, superimpositions, color-coded stage lighting, and lap dissolves – to such an exaggerated, even distancing degree one wonders if he is in fact shooting for ironic Sirkian critique rather than unfettered homage. The idea is certainly reinforced by the Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle soundtrack, which jazzily but listlessly fills in for the voices of the nonmusical protagonists, as well as by the aforementioned romance that feels as ersatz as the sets. But if One from the Heart really is supposed to be some kind of auto-critical pastiche, a husk of seductive formalism exposing the empty center of Hollywood fantasy, it forgot to tell its director. In the face of such all-devouring visual excess, Coppola insists on the sentimental pull of his lovers even though their tepid chemistry and flat characterizations undermine our engagement. There is little passion in their discord or inevitable reconciliation, and so they come to seem like just more parts to move around in this giant mechanical contraption. Neither a convincing genre reimagining or tribute, One from the Heart ends up an immaculately constructed, mostly inert bauble.