Heartless (II) (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

Heartfull.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 16 May 2020]

I absolutely loved this TV movie, it's incredibly moving, and funny in equal measure. It's one I revisit regularly.

Ninety minutes of drama that will have you glued to your screen, Deayton is good, Lahbib is glorious, Deayton was perfect as the obnoxious self centered Barrister, Lahbib was fantastic as the grieving widow, the pair worked very well together, some chemistry.

I particularly loved the scenes with the two boys, the scene with the jar of breath had me in tears, what a moving moment.

Feel good fun, we need more like this please. A nice change up from the usual cop shows and heavy thrillers.

Loved it.

10/10.

Nevermind heartless, where was the storyline?

[gaiter88 · 3/10 · 19 April 2005]

May be not a complete waste of one and a half hours, but I can think of plenty of better ways to spend the time. In fairness though this one off TV drama did have a couple of things going for it, the beautiful scenery for one, and the acting wasn't all that bad.

The problem I had with it though was the script, painfully predictable, and it had been done before. In essence there was not much need to watch the program, the advertising trailer pretty much gave you all you need to know to plot the course of the story from beginning to end.

However I managed to sit through it, and I must admit at some points laughing at the humour, the dog incident and the small Scottish band were notable moments. They could not save it though. There were small glimpses that the cast and crew were trying to produce something with meaning and purpose, in fact the only reason I can think of for why they had Angus Deayton with that ridiculous hair cut was to make him look uglier, but in the end the inevitable predictability of it all was its down coming.

Has it's flourishes,but is for the most part just perfunctory stuff all the way

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 7 April 2005]

star rating:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Top divorce lawyer Harry Holland (Angus Deayton) earns much and lives immorally,until a sudden heart attack finds his life being saved by an emergency donor.Ah well,sh*t happens,tomorrow's another day,thinks Harry,deciding to carry on with things,until he notices changes in his personality that he becomes driven to get to the bottom of.He travels to a remote Scottish town and befriends the widow of the man whose heart saved his life and her two children and from there starts to learn about love and what really matters in life.

Following News-of-the-World revelations of his coke and hookers shame whilst his girlfriend was pregnant with his child,Angus Deayton found his once flourishing TV career coming to an abrupt halt until all he could get work doing was presenting Top 100 of this-or-that shows on Sky One or Channel 5.But he seems to be trying to make his TV comeback sch-tick go one step further with this schmaltzy,well-worn tale of the immoral guy who suffers set-back and discovers what really matters in life,blah blah blah...And herein may lie the problem.

Deayton just seems really ill-suited for this role.His brilliant sarcastic wit and clever put-downs (even transfixing this onto himself by appearing on a hilarious edition of his Have I Got News for You show to be grilled on the week his career-shattering revelations were made public!) were what made him famous and what no-doubt netted him a fortune.So being the lead in this sentimental,sappy,Robin Williams kinda stuff seems a long stretch for him.There are occasional flourishes of said sarcastic wit present in bits of the script,but mostly he just unsuccessfully attempts to broaden his range and fails miserably.Some of the supporting cast are pretty good,but when they're upstaging their lead star,you just know something is wrong.And the other problem,as I've already mentioned,is simply how tired and unoriginal this all is.It just seems to push all the right buttons and amble along aimlessly until the end rolls up.

It's not a total failure.As I said,some of the acting's okay and it even manages to be a little funny in parts,but mostly,apart from being a clever pun on the leading character's predicament,Heartless only seems to describe the effort put into the film as a whole.**

Hoots mon its Scottish

[WILLOWSYKES · 7/10 · 8 July 2005]

Tourist Scotland meets a jet set London money-maker. OK so its stereotyped characters, clichés and locations, but it didn't loose too much for that.

Angus Deyton isn't the UKs greatest actor but he dose have a cynical charm which made this work. Transplant surgery is quite a ripe subject for writers and this isn't that original, but its funny and heart-warming (if you will pardon the pun) and even though you think you know the ending, it keeps you guessing all the way.

Good. The acting is convincing and there is just the right amount of humour. Its touching without ever going over the top and kept me well hooked.

Bad. Do all Scotsmen outside Glasgow wear kilts and dance round swords all the time? If you think yes, then this would not be a bad point and you will have a set of bagpipes in your living room and say D'ya Ken? Not many do though and this shortbread tin view of Scotland did start to get on my nerves.

Overall, I found it an entertaining story and well worth a watch.

Gorgeous scenery...

[bacchae2 · 6/10 · 24 May 2007]

...including the sublime, divine Simone Lahbib. Here all dark and wind-blown. Exotic. Earthy. Really, the woman is a chameleon. I've yet to see her play anything near the same role twice. And the only reason I've seen her in as much brit TV as I have, most of it unavailable in the states, is the kindness of fellow "Bad Girls" fans. Thank you. Aye, I'd watch her in anything.

This film has some of the quirk and fey scots charm of the series "Monarch of the Glen"...which Ms. Lahbib also graced for a season.

A simple little romantic comedy for TV, it reminds one a bit of the movie written and directed by actress Bonnie Hunt, "Return to Me," since the plot involves a heart transplant recipient unaccountably drawn towards the widowed partner of the deceased.

The music is lovely and will stick in your head afterwards. It's a confection light as candy floss (or the recurring balloons sent over the loch)but there are some genuine heartfelt moments that will stay with you. Though even romantic comedy in Scottish hands has something of a brash in-your-face tone to it.

Heartless

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 7 September 2005]

The title doesn't mean anything by someone being nasty and not care about something, it means literally a guy who is heartless. Basically Angus Deayton as Harry Holland is driving along the road on his motorbike without a care in the world when he crashes. When he wakes up he feels really different, the doctor tells him he had to have a heart transplant. It's not long after that he finds out that his heart has changed him, he hates some thing that he used to like and he wants to go to the place where the donor used to live. He falls in love with the donor's ex-wife. In the end he went back to normal and got his old heart back, but still stayed with her. Some good giggly moments and a very well cast Angus Deayton, a good made-for-TV film drama. Very good!

a must see movie

[jmcmanim · 9/10 · 26 May 2008]

This was a good movie.

The cast were excellent.

Simone Lahbib played a great part.

The movie gave me fond memories of Scotland, i actually thought it was filmed on the Isle of Skye when you have a picturesque scenery, around the lochs of Scotland .

The friendly nature of Scottish people, your half way there.

I think the previous comments did not reflect the true spirit of the movie.

I was amazed the movie was filmed at East Kilbride

Ego in Search of? Will he actually knows it when he claps eyes on it?

[ygwerin1 · 6/10 · 25 May 2022]

Just seen this on Amazon and added it to My List, Angus Deaton in a film who'd have thought it I most definitely wouldn't? I just had to give it a shot especially with the description of his character, as and I quote, Handome, Charming and Gregarious.

Quite frankly about the only person likely to consider him as Handsome would be Angus Deaton, because that's his opinion of himself every time that he gazes in the mirror.

The first time that I clapped eyes on Angus Deaton was on the television programme, Have I Got News for You as the Chair, along with the head panellists of Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. He was in the show for a while and I firmly expected him to remain as the permanent show chair, and indeed I got the strongest impression at the time, that I wasn't the only one who felt that including Angus Deaton himself. But eventually he left the post and the show itself, which he seemed to take as a personal slight as he considered himself irreplaceable.

But the show has kept on for Series after Series without him at the helm, have virtually a recyclable or revolving chair occupied by different personnel from show to show.

The other telly show that I've seen him in was One Foot in the Grave as a next door neighbour to the eponymous Victor Meldrew, I must say that I liked him in that comedy programme. Which is one of my all time favourite comedies, they were I feel ideally cast as awkward neighbours, being almost mirror images of each other as characters.

Viewing this movie I am not altogether surprised to see that it's a TV film especially as I can scarcely imagine one featuring Angus Deaton, making much of a fuss at any self respecting high street cinema.

His character Harry Holland is an extremely vain, pompous, self opinionated, barrister, he declares himself as a "Divorce Lawyer" a term that's also used here on IMDb, it is not surprising to see it here as this an American website, but no self respecting British barrister would dream of calling himself a lawyer.

Holland needs a heart transplant after suffering a severe heart attack, afterwards he feels compelled to know the identity of the donor and promptly heads, north of the border in search of as much information that he can gather into his benefactor.

Possibly the best source of local colour may or not be Rick the editor of the local rag, who once Holland gives him the gist of his search promptly considers that Hollands story, may well the nearest chance that he'll ever have of getting onto a local gravy train.

Something that is absolutely guaranteed to put me right off even a half way OK movie is slush, and this film perambulated along its merry way until, well rather like Harry Hollands ticker it hit the skids. Quite frankly one of the worst people that I could possibly even imagine, as any kind of (oh dear) romantic leading man is Angus Deaton.

Saved by the lead actress

[david-2564 · 5/10 · 1 February 2007]

A predictable movie that ambles along in picture postcard style with all the right buttons being pressed along the way as a self centered divorce lawyer turns into a spontaneous loving new age man being cheered on by every stereotype normally found in a Scottish village from the wise but feisty grandma down to the shy but honest rejected suitor. Of course the scenery and music are wonderful but these alone are not enough to carry the movie.

The only worthwhile thing about it was the performance of the lead actress Simone Lahbib who somehow was wildly attractive without being overtly sexy at all. I would watch this movie just to see her playing the widow who discovers she still has a heart.

If you see this movie you would be a Rome !

[rmcmurdo · 6/10 · 29 August 2006]

UNfortunately it is movies like these that make English retirees move and populate Scotland ! Absolute trite and as far removed from reality as you can imagine it . However I do not regonise the spot and would appreciate if someone could identify , to me it was a collage of places and not set in one spot.Acting was good however and Angus very convincing . Suppourting cast was staid and totally without true interest. As ssiad before if pople think this is true Scotland then they need to look again !.

Overall- trite !!these sort of movies funded bu Scottish money but do the reverse for Scotland !!