This is one of those muddled scripts that is usually written by an over-ambitious greenhorn who thinks that he can cram all his personal obsessions into his first movie, by force if need be. Sort of like packing up for a trip, having only one small bag to carry, and then you cram stuff into it, sit on it, etc. The fact that an experienced writer, not a novice, came up with this crap is all the more embarrassing.
A horror film with a social message? Not again. You certainly don't have to be a young writer to have idiotic intentions like that; just take a look at George Romero and some of his daft socio-political zombie films (the recent ones): the more "meaningful messages" he tries to stuff inside them, the dumber these movies turn out.
A young man (Morgan), with large birthmarks all over his face and body, witnesses a gang of demons one night. Soon people in London are being randomly murdered by them. And soon enough, they kill his mother. He is invited to meet their leader, who looks like a Russian mobster with a taste for heroine, but is in actual fact Satan or something or other. Satan gives him some goofy theory on how random violence improves mankind, and then tells him that his mother was killed "so that we could get you to enlist". I kid you not. No, I don't understand the logic of this either. It does get dumber, however.
Satan offers Morgan a new face, no more debilitating birthmarks, in return for committing evil acts. Couldn't he have just ASKED him? Morgan was desperate as it is to have a new face. Killing his mother could have only prevented recruiting him, not helped. But it gets better: Morgan actually agrees, making a deal with the individual who had his mother brutally burnt to death in front of his own eyes! Sure makes sense, doesn't it.
The demon has a young Indian girl, dressed in full traditional Indian regalia, acting as his helper? Good-luck charm? Daughter? Assistant? Who the hell knows, but the girl adds much-needed unintentional comedy into this bleak mess of a film. Her behaviour is so over-the-top absurd and self-contradicting that any attempt to figure out what the director/writer wanted to achieve with this character is a complete and utter waste of time. All I can see is her being constantly abused as a silly plot-device so that all sorts of nonsense can happen later on.
Morgan is visited by the "weapons guy", a cliché character right out of a Guy Ritchie comedy-caper. But it's just another bizarre, idiotic turn out of many in this shamelessly pointless movie.
At this point things get a little predictable – and even more ridiculous. Obviously, it will not suffice for Morgan to just draw "God is a moron" graffiti as he'd been falsely instructed to do (such a transparent gimmick), in order to fulfill his end of the Faustian bargain, in return for getting a new face. He has to commit murder. Surprise. Who didn't see that one coming. Yawn. Morgan is not only a weak-willed pushover, he must be an utter idiot too. (The way he fails to realize that the Indian girl is just toying with him, manipulating everything, is amazing. A cretin would have figured it out.)
His first victim is a male prostitute right out of a bloody silly comedy; a totally unrealistic character, suitably exaggerated (dumb and over-the-top) just so Morgan could kill him with ease. What person – especially a male prostitute who must be aware of the dangers of going to the homes of unknown men (especially someone behaving as strangely as Morgan) – lets themselves be rolled up in tape, mummy-wise, around the entire body by a complete stranger?
To cut a dumb, long story short, one murder wasn't enough, and he has to kill again – his own girlfriend this time, played by Clemence Poesy - that awful nepotistic actress that appeared in one of the many dumb Harry Potter flicks. Using a hopelessly botched accent, and looking rather ugly, she is suddenly Morgan's love-interest. He has a new face, and straight away he hooks up with the first female he meets. Ts, ts, ts; typical nerd.
The last half-hour is a complete mess. Predictable plot-twists, moronic plot-twists, and then an utterly daft, "philosophical" vision-of-daddy ending that doesn't tie into anything in any way, let alone neatly. "Heartless" is brainless, aimed at God-know-which demographic group. This piece of crap wouldn't develop a cult following if it were to play five thousand weeks in a row in a seedy cinema near you. Avoid this garbage at all cost.
A horror film with a social message? Not again. You certainly don't have to be a young writer to have idiotic intentions like that; just take a look at George Romero and some of his daft socio-political zombie films (the recent ones): the more "meaningful messages" he tries to stuff inside them, the dumber these movies turn out.
A young man (Morgan), with large birthmarks all over his face and body, witnesses a gang of demons one night. Soon people in London are being randomly murdered by them. And soon enough, they kill his mother. He is invited to meet their leader, who looks like a Russian mobster with a taste for heroine, but is in actual fact Satan or something or other. Satan gives him some goofy theory on how random violence improves mankind, and then tells him that his mother was killed "so that we could get you to enlist". I kid you not. No, I don't understand the logic of this either. It does get dumber, however.
Satan offers Morgan a new face, no more debilitating birthmarks, in return for committing evil acts. Couldn't he have just ASKED him? Morgan was desperate as it is to have a new face. Killing his mother could have only prevented recruiting him, not helped. But it gets better: Morgan actually agrees, making a deal with the individual who had his mother brutally burnt to death in front of his own eyes! Sure makes sense, doesn't it.
The demon has a young Indian girl, dressed in full traditional Indian regalia, acting as his helper? Good-luck charm? Daughter? Assistant? Who the hell knows, but the girl adds much-needed unintentional comedy into this bleak mess of a film. Her behaviour is so over-the-top absurd and self-contradicting that any attempt to figure out what the director/writer wanted to achieve with this character is a complete and utter waste of time. All I can see is her being constantly abused as a silly plot-device so that all sorts of nonsense can happen later on.
Morgan is visited by the "weapons guy", a cliché character right out of a Guy Ritchie comedy-caper. But it's just another bizarre, idiotic turn out of many in this shamelessly pointless movie.
At this point things get a little predictable – and even more ridiculous. Obviously, it will not suffice for Morgan to just draw "God is a moron" graffiti as he'd been falsely instructed to do (such a transparent gimmick), in order to fulfill his end of the Faustian bargain, in return for getting a new face. He has to commit murder. Surprise. Who didn't see that one coming. Yawn. Morgan is not only a weak-willed pushover, he must be an utter idiot too. (The way he fails to realize that the Indian girl is just toying with him, manipulating everything, is amazing. A cretin would have figured it out.)
His first victim is a male prostitute right out of a bloody silly comedy; a totally unrealistic character, suitably exaggerated (dumb and over-the-top) just so Morgan could kill him with ease. What person – especially a male prostitute who must be aware of the dangers of going to the homes of unknown men (especially someone behaving as strangely as Morgan) – lets themselves be rolled up in tape, mummy-wise, around the entire body by a complete stranger?
To cut a dumb, long story short, one murder wasn't enough, and he has to kill again – his own girlfriend this time, played by Clemence Poesy - that awful nepotistic actress that appeared in one of the many dumb Harry Potter flicks. Using a hopelessly botched accent, and looking rather ugly, she is suddenly Morgan's love-interest. He has a new face, and straight away he hooks up with the first female he meets. Ts, ts, ts; typical nerd.
The last half-hour is a complete mess. Predictable plot-twists, moronic plot-twists, and then an utterly daft, "philosophical" vision-of-daddy ending that doesn't tie into anything in any way, let alone neatly. "Heartless" is brainless, aimed at God-know-which demographic group. This piece of crap wouldn't develop a cult following if it were to play five thousand weeks in a row in a seedy cinema near you. Avoid this garbage at all cost.