Is it enough for a movie to be nice? Yes. Is it okay for a movie to relentlessly tug at your heartstrings? If you’re comfortable with that, yes. Can a movie lend you a jar of love? Certainly. Premiering at this year’s Berlinale, Anthony Schatteman’s debut feature Young Hearts shows us the story of 14-year-old Elias (Lou Goossens) navigating the strong feelings he has for Alexander (Marius De Saeger), the boy who moves in across the street from him.
Elias lives in a postcard idyllic part of the Netherlands. Alexander arrives from Brussels. The kids at school ask him how dangerous it is. Despite how perfect everything looks and how nice everyone usually is, the film feels real thanks in large part to a strong cast of young actors playing the age they actually appear to be. Elias has a girlfriend, but is drawn immediately to Alexander, who very matter of factly tells him he had a boyfriend he loved back in Brussels.
The film opens with what will be its only source of humour throughout, Elias’s father Luk (Geert Van Rampelberg) singing his hoaky hit song ‘First Love’. The performance reminded me of ‘Can I Borrow a Feeling?’ by Simpsons character Kirk Van Houten, who I realize now has a Dutch last name. Although Luk seems to only play to medium sized old folks’ homes, he’s a massive success. He’s invited onto a Masked Singer type show, has a gold record, and gets a magazine cover.
That magazine cover gets defaced with an ejaculating penis crudely drawn over Elias’s dad, the handiwork of some of his bullies at school. It happens about twenty minutes into the movie, and is a welcome bit of conflict in the sea of niceness. Louis has two loving parents in a big sunny clean home. His grandpa’s farm looks very clean. Even the remaining belongings of Elias’s late grandma, art supplies too painful for his grandpa to contemplate, are kept tidily in a trailer on the property. The family eat sculpted radishes with radish leaf pesto and people mostly smile warmly at one another.
There are other moments of conflict throughout: Louis and his brother talk back to their father, the school bullies try to attack Louis and Alexander, Louis has to deal with the girl he’s been dating prior to Alexander’s arrival. And many of these moments are genuine and very effective. But they float away almost as soon as they arrive.
The ongoing conflict, played very convincingly by Goosens, is within Elias himself. He struggles with the reactions he worries he’ll get from his family and the kids at school. Alexander has already had tragedy in his life. He’s already been through enough shit and doesn’t want to waste time or a chance at love and happiness.
The two boys end up at a costume party together. Alexander is the Joker. Elias is Leonardo Dicaprio as Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo from a movie he’s never seen and that came out 15 years before he was born (the idea of the girl he’s been dating). It culminates with Elias standing outside Alexander’s house, who appears like Juliet at a second story window. Alexander quickly goes down to see Elias, shutting down comparisons to that scene.
They aren’t from feuding families, the obstacles to their relationship aren’t as severe as Romeo and Juliet’s. But the film does a very nice job of letting us see that that’s how it feels for Elias. It reminds us how intense those feelings can be for someone so young, and that in the present day it still is harder for someone who’s gay.
As he struggles with his feelings and the fallout of being a dick to Alexander, Elias lashes out at his family. His grandpa takes him on a trip to the Ardennes. Elias’s first smile in a while comes when he taps jarringly on the glass of an aquarium full of goldfish. Maybe it connects to a happy memory of swimming with Alexander and soon he will swim happily with hi grandpa too. But it seems mean to the fish.
Elias gets a happy ending. Everyone who was upset with him, justifiably or not, smiles at him. It’s emotionally satisfying but a bit too perfect.
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