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Purely Joyful Movie!

one of my absolute favorites!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

For the antihero premise to work, there has to be something engaging or redemptive about the main character, otherwise the whole thing is off. Here, it's off from the beginning, and stays off for the duration. Nothing clicks. There is no motivation for Nick to stay with Jack, they have no chemistry, and neither one of them needs the other. So you have two positive magnetic poles throughout the story. Show me one moment of tenderness between father and son, one moment where they really connected despite their differences, where they accomplished something or tried to patch things up despite the lost years, and it would have saved the film. Instead it frustratingly steers clear of any attempt at reconciliation. Not even once is there any legitimate sign of affection between them. This could have been so much more, and Lucinda Jenney's terrible acting didn't help.

An absolutely powerful movie with Jeff Bridges giving a sensational performance as a recently released prisoner connecting with his young son.This is definitely a film which shows the importance of environment in the lives of our protagonists. The Bridges character wants to go straight but is held back by environmental influences, and not being able to secure employment doesn't help the situation.His intelligent but emotionally wrought son wants to know more about his hooker mother. In constant outbursts with his father, he soon falls into the mean streets of the city and with other outcasts as well.While the ending of the film is tragic, there is hope for the new generation.

Martin Bell directed "Streetwise" in the 1980s, a powerful documentary which chartered the lives of various kids and teenagers living rough on the streets of Seattle. Bell attempts to capture a similar tone with 1992's "American Heart", the story of a recently released convict (Jeff Bridges) who finds himself pursued by his needy, 12 year old son (Edward Furlong). The film watches as the duo roam the streets of Seattle, struggling to makes ends meet, keep out of trouble and hold down jobs. Some of its more powerful moments involve Bridges abandoning his son, or flashing moments of disturbing selfishness (he steals the kid's bed). Unfortunately the film as a whole eventually descends into cliché and melodramatic contrivances.Unlike "Streetwise", "American Heart's" tone is a kind of false, manufactured grittiness. The poor, and real poverty, do not behave, act, talk and feel like this. "Heart's" characters are too self-aware, too introspective , the plot's too sentimental, too structured, too manufactured, conveying a kind of imitative neo-realism, rather than something more authentic. This material needs to be handled in either an abstract/ stylised manner, as a literal documentary, or via the sanctified minimalism of a De Sica or Visconti (or the recently released "Wendy and Lucy"). Conventional neo-realism – which the French, Italians and British did in the 40s, 50s and 60s - does not, and can not, work five decades after the neo-realist movement. It simply rings false. Documentary film has changed what we expect from cinema verite, as Bell himself shows in "Streetwise".The film ends with Bridges dying and Furlong being abandoned, America's youths once again adrift. Throughout the film, Bell paints the American Dream as a literal, dead, frozen wasteland.7.5/10 - Dated. Worth one viewing.

Edward Furlong is one of my favorite actors. Jeff Bridges is one of the top actors in Hollywood, and while not on my top 10 list, he's still a brilliant actor. So, American Heart should have been an awesome film! I knew from reading reviews, that it was gonna be strange, but while most people liked it, I did not! The story follows an ex-con trying to restart his life, and his estranged, runaway son, that he just can't get rid of. The background is great, but the film sucks, seriously all you see is these people going about their everyday business! Nothing really happens, you feel no connection to the characters whatsoever, and there is really no reason to care about what is happening!? Just go follow two random people on the street for a couple days and watch them go about their everyday life and you'll know what this awful film was like.