Or Himlens hjärta was the best movie we’ve seen yet. Tonight, Neil and I watched the Swedish movie (with English subtitles) following the dialogue quite easily. It begins with two very close middle-aged couples enjoying dinner together, reflecting on love, life and relationships. The conversation takes a sensitive turn when they start discussing a colleague’s recent choice to leave his wife and two children for a younger woman. One spouse of each couple understands the choice, while their partners are disturbed and taken aback by the understanding. This conversation weighs on the backs of their minds, threatening the health of their relationships as partners and as friends. This movie is a MUST see. It is by far the one I’ve enjoyed most. Although, the first one invoked a strong emotional response, I was much better able to relate to the characters in Heaven’s Heart. It forces viewers to analyze their own relationships and the role they play in making them both successful.

Here are the details from the VIFF site:

Heaven’s Heart
(Sweden, 2008, 92 mins)
35mm
North American Premiere
Directed By: Simon Staho
Selected Filmography:

PROD: Jonas Frederiksen
SCR: Peter Asmussen, Simon Staho
CAM: Anders Bohman
ED: Janus Billeskov Jansen
MUS: Stefan Nilsson
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Lena Endre, Jacob Eklund, Maria Lundqvist

Two bourgeois Swedish couples find that a dinner party discussion about adultery has serious repercussions upon their apparent wedded bliss in Heaven’s Heart. A blend of raw emotion, fearless performances, and stylized cinematography (tightly framed close-ups make the characters seem to talk directly to the audience), it plays like an update of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage laced with Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and a soupçon of Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

Lars (Mikael Persbrandt) and Susanna (Lena Endre) and Ulf (Jakob Eklund) and Ann (Maria Lundqvist) have been close friends for nearly 20 years. During a get-together, their talk turns to a doctor colleague of Lars who left his wife and children for a much younger woman. The dialogue brings out questions that most couples will relate to. Is marriage “a wall against solitude?” What’s more important, passion or security? When Susanna and Ulf defend the man, their surprised partners feel a sliver of fear that unruly passion might one day overturn their stable relationships. Unfortunately, they fail to realize that understanding adultery is not the same as acting on it.