Hål i mitt hjärta, Ett (A Hole In My Heart)

Critics Consensus

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44%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 18

35%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 2,569
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Movie Info

Lukas Moodysson wrote and directed this disturbing and controversial allegorical drama. Eric (Björn Almroth) is a teenager who lives in a shabby flat with his father, Rickard (Thorsten Flinck). Eric spends most of his time holed up in his room, blaring industrial music in order to drown out what's going on around him. Eric has just cause to be a bit disturbed by his surroundings -- Rickard is an amateur filmmaker specializing in extreme sex videos, and he's taken over the living room, where his emotionally disturbed friend Geko (Goran Marjanovic) and a blank young woman named Tess (Sanna Bråding) are "starring" in his latest project. As shooting progresses over the course of several days, Rickard and his cast lose track of the outside world and become increasingly desensitized to their own decadence. As the sexual play becomes more and more extreme, edging into violence, Eric feels no choice but to intervene. Both celebrated and criticized for its unflinchingly explicit sexual content, Ett Hål I Mitt Hjärta (aka A Hole in My Heart) received its North American premier at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival.

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Cast

Björn Almroth
as Eric
Sanna Bråding
as Tess
Thorsten Flinck
as Rickard
Goran Marjanovic
as Geko

Critic Reviews for Hål i mitt hjärta, Ett (A Hole In My Heart)

All Critics (18) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (10)

  • The question is: do we need to be hauled through scene after scene of drab, dehumanized behavior so that we may see, or at least hear, humanity restored at the end?

    May 21, 2005

    Anthony Lane

    New Yorker
    Top Critic

  • Moodysson comes on like de Sade crossed with Godard, yet by locking us outside of his characters, he fails to make them even contemptuously compelling.

    Apr 13, 2005 | Rating: C

    Owen Gleiberman

    Entertainment Weekly
    Top Critic

  • An experimental, transgressive work that pretty much fails on every level.

    Apr 11, 2005

    Frank Scheck

    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic

  • The film is yet another proof of Moodysson's fearlessness and his willingness to push forward and break through the boundaries of convention.

    Apr 8, 2005 | Full Review…

    Gunnar Rehlin

    Variety
    Top Critic

  • Will disgust many (probably most) viewers as it cements Moodysson's reputation as one of today's most daring filmmakers.

    Apr 8, 2005 | Rating: 3/4

    V.A. Musetto

    New York Post
    Top Critic

  • It's a mystery what the Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson thought he was up to in A Hole in My Heart, a movie teeming with ugly images and grotesque behavior.

    Apr 7, 2005 | Rating: 1/5

    Manohla Dargis

    New York Times
    Top Critic
View All Critic Reviews (18)

Audience Reviews for Hål i mitt hjärta, Ett (A Hole In My Heart)

  • Mar 28, 2010
    Probably the most pointless and irritating watch since Gummo. The film has nothing to say, or anything entertaining to offer. We are assaulted by a stream of unconscious, disgusting visuals. The film is also mindlessly repetitive and just becomes like a scratched CD of some cheap erotica. Moodysson ventures into the world of the experimental, but instead, just insults everyone's intelligence. Art has to say something, and if it wants to depict the harshness of humanity, there should at least be some sort of emotional focus point. Without the emotion, it's just three people in a room, being disgusting.
    Luke B Super Reviewer
  • Sep 28, 2008
    Definitely not easy watching, and not for everyone. This movie is about four pretty screwed up people. A young girl who is so demented her main tragedy in life seems to be not getting onto Big Brother, gets involved with two low life guys, (one of whom you are meant to have sympathy for because it turns out he was molested as a child by his father), both pretty damn unlikable, who are making a porn movie. While this girl is getting degraded in all manner of ways, yet still either so self loathing or desperate for fame, (which it is not clearly spelt out here), that she keeps coming back for more and alternates between hating and loving her abusers, the emo teenage son of one of the guys has fallen in love with her. I could not honestly say I enjoyed this as it really is pretty horrible, but I could not turn it off either.
    Nicki M Super Reviewer
  • Mar 31, 2008
    The only reason I watched the whole thing, I'm not afraid to say, was because Sanna Bråding was running around naked. Pretentious crap!!
    The M Super Reviewer
  • Nov 03, 2006
    [font=Century Gothic]With "A Hole in My Heart", writer and director Lukas Moodysson's intent is to show that all we need is a hug and some tender loving care. This is a completely worthy sentiment but Moodysson takes an extremely unpleasant path to that conclusion:[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Tess(Sanna Brading) is a 21 year old woman hoping to get her start in pornographic films by starring in an amateur film with Richard(Thorsten Flinck) and Geko(Goran Marjanovic). The footage shot is as degrading and ugly as possible, interlaced with gruesome shots of surgery and dolls.(I don't understand the surgery but at least I get the dolls...) While all of this is going on, Richard's grown, withdrawn son, Eric(Bjorn Almroth), stays in his room.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Coupled with his previous movie, "Lilya-4-Ever", I am starting to get the impression that Lukas Moodysson has a mile-wide puritanical streak and just views sex as something exploitative and demeaning towards women, when in fact most people tend to think of it as kind of fun.[/font]
    Walter M Super Reviewer
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