Short Takes: ‘One from the Heart’ (1982) ★★

Critics and audiences didn’t like
it when it was released in 1982
and I don't like it now,

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 film One from the Heart stars Frederic Forrest, Terri Garr, Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski, but the only credit that matters appears at the very end of the movie: “Filmed entirely on the stages of Zoetrope Studios.”

One from the Heart is set in Las Vegas, a place that exists in real life, but rather than just film the fucker on location like a normal person, Coppola chose to recreate, at no small expense, the city on his own soundstages. Coppola’s Vegas is dazzling, more fantastical—and significantly cleaner—than the real thing. Angelo P. Graham has art directed the shit out of this place! And each scene, often bathed in neon pinks, blues, yellows and greens, is lovingly captured by cinematographers Ronald Victor Garcia and Vittorio Storaro. If we watched movies to admire the sets and cinematography, One from the Heart would be a must-see. 

Most of us, however, watch movies for the characters and story, and One from the Heart doesn’t have much of either. Forrest and Garr play Hank and Frannie respectively, longtime lovers who get in a fight all of a sudden (something about Hank buying Frannie a house with their money and dragging his feet about taking her to Bora Bora). Frannie storms off to stay with her friend Maggie (Lainie Kazan), while Hank goes to his friend Moe (an under-utilized Harry Dean Stanton) to drown his sorrows. Hank and Frannie spend the rest of the movie trying to decide if they should get back together or start new lives with the new people they meet on the Fourth of July: Hank a beautiful young circus performer (Kinski), Frannie a charming waiter/aspiring singer (Julia). Except you won’t give a shit about any of them.

Had the movie been the musical comedy it’s labeled as, One from the Heart might’ve worked, yet it only looks like one. Though it’s got a pervasive (and pretty great) soundtrack supplied by Tom Waites and Crystal Gayle, I wouldn’t call it a musical. And comedies are usually funny; One from the Heart is only irritating. Audiences didn’t like it when it was released in 1982 and I don’t like it now, critical reappraisal be damned. Still, it looks great (80% of the reason behind my two-star rating), and at least it’s shorter than Megalopolis.