Despite a promising start featuring one of the finest opening scenes of the year, 'Hungry Hearts' doesn't quite push on.
Hungry Hearts, the New York-set Italian drama starring 'Girls' actor Adam Driver, was selected in the special presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014. It is also competing for the Gold Lion at Venice.
Saverio Constanzo [L], Adam Driver [centre] and Alba Rohrwacher [R] in Venice Film Festival
The movie follows the relationship of a couple who meet by chance after getting stuck in a toilet together in New York City, however, their connection is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Saverio Costanzo's last movie, In Memory of Me, about the life of a young man who decides to enter a Jesuit monastery in Venice was critically acclaimed, though Hungry Hearts appears to miss the mark.
"...the film appeared at first to be in possession of good and relevant ideas, and a persuasively appropriate way of putting them across. But Costanzo doesn't know where to take the and it simply collapses in a ridiculous muddle. But the performances of Driver and Rohrwacher lend some weight to the movie," said Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian.
More: check out our Adam Driver pictures from Venice Film Festival
"Despite the near-dozen cast members listed, "Hungry Hearts" is an intimate three-hander that starts off with one of the more delightful opening scenes of recent years, but then, soon after the half-hour mark, the once-charming protags and their increasingly irrational behavior turn exasperating," said Jay Weissberg of Variety.
"Driver and Maxwell are pleasingly rational for New Yorkers and Driver has the presence not to lose scenes to Rohrwacher's unpredictable antics as the family psychotic. The intervention of the local police and social services doesn't ring true, however, giving the finale an unsatisfying, arbitrary feeling," said Deborah Young of the Hollywood Reporter.
Hungry Hearts is set to get a U.S release date.
More: Al Pacino in Oscars race after stunning Venice with 'Manglehorn'
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