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Hearts Beat Loud Leaves Sweet Reverberations


As I left the theatre fresh from seeing Hearts Beat Loud, Brett Haley’s dramedy love letter to music, I overheard a couple older women leaving ahead of me give their own thoughts on the movie. “It’s not bad, but it’s not really about anything,” said one. The other concurred, adding that most movies aren’t these days. At first this reaction took me by surprise, but the more I thought about it the more I understood their point of view. Hearts Beat Loud is a movie about a lot of things which makes it look like it’s not about anything.
The movie follows a father and daughter in Brooklyn: Frank Fisher (Nick Offerman), who’s preparing to close his record store after increasingly diminishing profits, and his daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) who’s anticipating going off to Pre-Med school at UCLA. They both have a love of music, and after writing a song together that finds modest success, the “Hearts Beat Loud” of the title, Frank tries to convince her to start a band with him.
This is an ideal movie for the end of the summer, because it revolves around change, both in moving forward and letting go. It’s set at the end of summer, a period marked by transition, and really conveys that tremendously; that feeling of bittersweet rumination in the inevitable replacement of the familiar with the new. And tied into that theme are aspects of love, dreams, goals, and grief. This film deals in heartbreak over the memory of Frank’s wife, over Sam having to leave her girlfriend Rose (Sasha Lane) when she goes to college, and even over Frank’s having to close his shop, a testament to his lifelong love of music -each of which inform songs that Frank and Sam write. It’s remarked upon how Sam is the more grown-up of the two, driven by her interest and intent to study to be a doctor, while Frank clings to the idea of making music again for possibly selfish reasons; first in his impressing routine jam sessions on her, then uploading their song to Spotify without her consent, and ultimately going so far as to suggest she put college on hold for their band.
But I really like that in spite of these conflicts, there’s not a lot of drama in Frank and Sam’s relationship. Sure there are some unresolved issues from Sam’s mothers’ death and Sam is annoyed, even frustrated with her father at times, but for the most part they have a relatively healthy bond. Usually movies heavily concerned with parent-child drama approach it from a place of detachment, so this movies’ focus is very refreshing and it makes them much more likeable from the start. And in spite of Franks’ self-serving ambition, he’s genuinely supportive and encouraging of Sam’s talent. Offerman and Clemons are both terrific, the former giving a performance unusually upbeat and enthusiastic, but nonetheless welcome and heartwarming; while the latter really demonstrates she’s an actress to be taken seriously -and a pretty good singer too. Toni Collette plays Frank’s landlady and love interest Leslie, and Lane is superb as Sam’s loyal and loving girlfriend -the two make for a very sweet couple. Ted Danson plays Frank’s best friend, a bartender, which is a delight to Cheers fans, and the filmmakers know exactly what they’re doing with him. There’s one scene where Frank and Leslie toast “cheers” while Danson’s recovering from some alcohol he’s clearly not used to, not long after flipping a glass in a distinctly Sam Malone way. Blythe Danner rounds out the cast as Frank’s mother, who has dementia and regular run-ins with law enforcement.
What’s interesting is that neither Danson nor Danner are important to the plot. Either one could be cut and the story wouldn’t be much effected. Their purpose though is to give the movie character, and to emphasize, especially in Danners’ case, the constants in the Fishers’ lives; creating for them a more rounded world just as that world’s being broken apart. But for as much as this movie is based around loss, it’s also very hopeful, endearing, and inspiring. It’s sad and moving yes, but optimistic as well. The mission statement of Hearts Beat Loud is that nothing lasts forever, everything changes, and that’s okay as long as we value what we leave behind. The halcyon days of summer must come to an end, but there’s a whole slew of them to be created in the fall.
The songs by Keegan De Witt are wonderful, there’s beautiful atmosphere (it’s climax really transports you to one of my favourite kinds of environments), stunning performances and charm, good humour, and an abundance of heart this film wears on its sleeve with pride. Hearts Beat Loud may not be the best movie of the year, but it’s certainly the sweetest, and that’s not something to take for granted.

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