3 Hearts (3 Coeurs) has, on paper, all of the right ingredients of a love story to attract an audience; with a reputable cast set against a provincial French backdrop and a classic tale as old as time, the story of a love triangle between a man and two sisters set the stage for a highly tense and romantic story. Unfortunately, our hopes for the film outperform the film itself, making for one disappointing and tonally confusing film.
Marc (Benoît Poelvoorde) is a middle-aged, balding businessman; well off, but lonely. After he misses his connecting train to Paris, he begins to wander around the ghost town that is Valence (a six-hour train ride from the French capital). He soon meets Sylvie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) a beautiful woman with tomboy charm; her hair is unkempt, she smokes likes a chimney, but her allure is breathtaking. It’s easy to see why he falls so quickly and deeply for her, with her immediately returning his early affections. But after a failed attempt at reconnecting a second time in Paris, each one thinking the other stood them up, they both go their separate ways. Never expecting to see each other again they reopen up their hearts to love. It’s not long before Marc finds a connection with Sophie (Chiara Mastroianni), who he soon marries. When Marc discovers that Sophie is Sylvie’s sister, and that he cannot suppress his feelings for the latter, Marc finds himself at a love crossroads–between his new love, and his true love.
Despite its beautiful vintage aesthetic and Parisian setting, 3 Hearts is a lofty story with a foggy vision of a specific genre.
This emotional film is absorbing with its incredible performances from all three leads. Their struggles and torment is felt through their actions, making the dialogue feel almost unnecessary to its unspoken counterpoint. To director Benoît Jacquot’s benefit, he features an extraordinary cast who all seem comfortable on screen and really knew their character at their best and worst. Despite these character and performance points, I struggle to find more positive things to say about this film.
Despite its beautiful vintage aesthetic and Parisian setting, 3 Hearts is a lofty story with a foggy vision of a specific genre. What is most off-putting comes from the film’s score; just about every time Sylive appears on screen, after she and Marc reconnect and start up an affair, an overpoweringly heavy bass plays ( a lá Jaws) which is meant to implicate tension but comes off more like a cheap horror slasher film, which I couldn’t help but laugh at the longer it went on. Another distracting sound choice is the sudden inclusion of a narrator halfway through the film, which begs the question–did the film not make sense once it was completed and was felt necessary to include to explain the story? Or was this just a terrible mistake in style, as this film is cheapened by this mysterious voice appearing very sporadically and out of sync with the rest of the film.
From a visual perspective, there is no denying that the locations are beautiful; yet 3 Hearts finds a way to make even Paris look tacky. The glaring camera zooms onto characters and extreme dolly shots here are reminiscent of a poorly made 90s comedy, not a tense drama about love and missed connections. These stylistic choices unfortunately made a lot of moments unbelievable, making it hard to suspend our disbelief for this film.
Ultimately, there are too many confusing and laughable stylistic choices that make 3 Hearts anything but forgettable. It is unfortunate because the performances are powerful and touching, as Gainsbourg especially knows how to play vulnerable with a tough exterior that we can all relate to and sympathize with. Even she cannot rid the tackiness of the film’s execution.
‘3 Hearts’ opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle Theaters this Friday.
