Sondra Locke received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Margaret "Mick" Kelly in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a powerful movie about a kind, deaf mute man who befriends his landlady's teenage daughter. It's a heartfelt picture that is often underrated - the Oscar-nominated performances are the only reason why this movie is occasionally remembered but I thought it was actually a great movie itself. Robert Ellis Miller's direction might feel a little too stagey and there's not much to admire about the movie in its visuals, but he deserves credit for the bittersweet, tenderly melancholic atmosphere he manages to give to the story. The screenplay is excellent - there are a lot of subplots involving minor characters that could have felt like useless time-fillers yet they all come together beautifully and the film as a whole is very well structured and edited. The cast is uniformly excellent with every actor doing a more than solid job.
The role of Mick was Sondra Locke's acting debut and, to this day, it's her most appreciated performance: she didn't go on to have a particularly great career and nowadays she is unfortunately more remembered for her stormy marriage with Clint Eastwood rather than her ability as an actress. I have not seen any other movie from Sondra Locke's career (not even Sudden Impact and The Outlaw Josey Wales), but judging from her startling debut in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter she definitely deserved a much better career than the one she ended up having. The role of Mick is actually much more difficult than it might seem at first glance (and despite the category placement at the Oscars, it's actually a leading part with a lot of screen-time and focus) but Locke gives a seemingly effortless, genuine portrayal that carries the whole movie beautifully.
In the early scenes, Mick could have easily come off as an extremely obnoxious character considering that for the most of the time she is complaining about the fact that she had to give up her room to Singer (Oscar nominated Alan Arkin), who rented it. It could have been very easy to deem Mick as extremely selfish and insensitive for her behavior (her parents had to rent out her room because her father's hip injury prevented him from working), but Locke avoids that by giving such a convincing portrayal of her character's immaturity and impulsiveness that comes with her age. Even if her actions are not always necessarily likeable, Locke still manages to make Mick a rather endearing character right from the beginning because she so wonderfully conveys her character's brightness and intelligence - in spite of everything, she makes you root for her and wish that her dreams of being a musician could come true; she is outstanding at portraying Mick's ambitions and dreams and she conveys her love for classical musical in such an earnest and poignant way. I also really like the chemistry she shares with both her on-screen mother Laurinda Barrett and her on-screen father Biff McGuire: in her scenes with the former, Locke is very effective at portraying how Mick becomes progressively more distant from her often cold and stern mother, while still conveying an underlying affection despite their disagreements; in her scenes with the latter, Locke is terrific at showing Mick's conflict as she is torn between her love for her father and her distress over the fact that his injury will probably cause the end of her dreams - buying a piano and learning how to play it.
The best aspect of her performance though is the chemistry she develops with Alan Arkin: Locke is great at portraying her character's transition as she goes from despising Singer to slowly accepting him and finally bonding with him becoming his closest friend. Their few scenes alone together throughout the whole movie are its beating heart as both actors realize so well the unique relationship between those two characters, who only in those moments find some solace and forget their own personal plights: I particularly love the scene in which Mick tries to translate music through gestures and words to Singer - it's a beautiful moment that is played by Locke with lovely spontaneity and warmth.
The movie also focuses on Mick's coming of age as she gradually becomes a woman aware of her desires and sexuality and she portrays this development excellently. Early on in the movie, Mick is portrayed as a not very popular girl who is often uninvited at parties and is rarely noticed by boys her age but later on she engages in a relationship with Harry, the brother of one of her classmates: Locke makes both her unpopularity and Harry's attraction believable as she is very charming in her own way but not in the "cool girl" sense. Another thing I particularly admire about Locke's work is how she initially portrays her desire of becoming a popular girl but then conveys a gradual disillusionement about her more traditionally cool but quite vapid friends - she is great in the later scene when she abruptly ends a party she threw as she realizes the shallowness of those people.
In the movie's third act, Locke gets some heavy, difficult scenes that she solves beautifully, particularly the one in which she finds out her father is permanently paralyzed and that she will have to drop out of school in order to support her family financially - she is absolutely devastating as she shows how, in that precise moment, all of Mick's dreams and hopes for her future just collapse and she delivers both in her confrontation with her mother and her following breakdown in Singer's room, poignantly depicting her character's shattered and devastated emotional state. She also brings the right impact to the scene when she loses her virginity with Harry and her eventual confusion as she realizes that she didn't do it out of love but rather just to "have her things her own way". And then she wraps up her performance excellently with her final scene: she is amazing at portraying her character's grief but she also portrays a newfound maturity and wisdom in her character that ends the film with a slight sense of hope - we don't get to know what eventually happened to Mick, but there is a quiet strength in her last scene that is almost comforting and reassuring: her friendship with Singer helped her finally coming into her own as a person and realizing her dreams, and her performance at the end suggests that for Mick it might not be too late to accomplish them.
In the end, this is a brilliant performance from Sondra Locke, who works in perfect tandem with the rest of the cast, particularly Alan Arkin, and beautifully brings to life the complex, nuanced character of Mick. It's a wonderfully layered performance that anchors the movie and that should be remembered today much more often.
5/5
Beautiful film based on an amazing novel. And a great performance.
RispondiEliminaThoughts/ratings on the rest of the cast?
Barrett - 3.5 (I thought she was extremely effective in her limited role. She perfectly portrays her character's stern behavior but she manages to give us an understanding of it as she realizes so well the motives behind her coldness. The few moments in which she genuinely attempts to connect with Mick are particularly moving)
EliminaMcGuire - 3.5 (He too was very effective in his role. He brings the needed warmth and sweetness in his interactions with Locke but at the same time he touchingly portrays his character's desperation due to his injury. He's particularly moving at portraying his anguish when he realizes that his injury will forever affect his family and particularly Mick's future)
Keach - 3.5 (Rather limited role but I really liked him. He is very good in his early scenes as he's a very convincing drunk, and then he is quite moving as his character decides to sober up and lead a decent life. His later appearences in the movie are sparse and brief but he is good at portraying a more relaxed and fulfilled version of the man)
McCann - 2.5 (Extremely limited role. He's good in his depiction of his character's mental state and he provides for just the right warmth in his few moments with Arkin, but his character is more of a plot device than anything)
Rodriguez - 4 (I thought he did a great job at portraying his character's developement as he becomes more and more open towards Singer, revealing a much warmer side of his character as the movie progresses. He's also very good at portraying his own desperation due to his imminent fate and his scenes with Tyson are quite effective as the two actors realize the underlying affection behind their rocky relationship)
Tyson - 4 (She might have a few over-the-top moments, but otherwise I thought she was very good in the role. She has a great chemistry with Rodriguez and as I mentioned above she's effective at showing the affection that Portia feels for her father in spite of their disagreements. She mostly handles well her emotional scenes in the second half of the movie and she remarkably portrays her concern over her husband's condition)
A film I really should re-watch, but yeah, she was great.
RispondiEliminaGlad we agree on her performance, and I suggest you to give the movie another shot.
EliminaGiuseppe: off-topic, since youre a fan of Mommy (me too :D), what are your ratings/thoughts on the three main actors in that film?
RispondiEliminaDorval - 5 (It's an absolutely amazing portrayal of an extremely challenging role that could have easily gone completely wrong in the wrong hands. Dorval is great in the role as she portrays her character's uncouth, trashy demeanor in a very entertaining fashion but she never turns her character into a mere caricature: she's loud but never excessively so, and she always conveys the desperation that lies beneath her larger-than-life personality. She never shies away from her character's flaws but in every moment she suggests Diane's painful history that partly justifies them: she's brilliant in every moment she shares with Pilon as she portrays so well both her endless love for her son as well as her growing exhaustion caused by his erratic behavior. Her big outburst towards the end is a perfectly acted moment as Dorval completely earns it, unleashing so powerfully her character's frustration and weariness. Her final scene is particularly mesmerizing as she goes from phony friendliness, to struggling to keep her hope for the future to finally breakdowning in such a heartbreaking fashion. It's a phenomenal performance)
EliminaPilon - 5 (Again, an extremely tricky role that in the hands of a lesser actor could have been an over-the-top mess. Pilon instead is absolutely incredible in the role as he portrays his character's mood swings in such a captivating fashion: in his "quieter" moments, Pilon is immensely charismatic and it's easy to see why both his mother and Kyla would be so willing to overlook his flaws because he has such a charming and winning screen-presence; in the moments in which Steve reveals his more aggressive, mentally unstable nature, Pilon is a true force of nature as he manages to be frightening and moving all at once. Pilon never loses the core of the character and he always makes us understand his character's feelings even when those feelings are more than questionable. He portrays perfectly Steve's relationship with his mother - he clearly shows his affection for her but at the same time he shows that his feelings are not always the ones that a son is supposed to feel for his mother, and he gives an excellent and convincing portrayal of his occasionally overly eager and attached behavior towards her. He also shares an intriguing chemistry with Clément and their scenes together are some of the most interesting of the whole movie. Overall, it's a terrific performance that compliments Dorval's turn exceptionally)
Clément - 4.5 (The only reason she is not a 5 is that I found her to be occasionally a little bit overshadowed by the other two actors and because her character' history is mostly suggested but never truly explained. Anyway this is an absolutely excellent performance and I could actually see myself upgrading her in the future. Clément portrays her character's speech impedement in a completely convincing fashion and it never once rings false: past that, she is very moving at portraying her character's vulnerability and insecurity that probably comes from a recent trauma that we never get to know specifically but she nonetheless conveys everything that the viewer needs to perceive. She is heartwarming and touching in the rest of the movie as she shows how her character slowly gets out of her scene and then she is quietly devastating in her final scene as we see her character coming back to her former state. It's a fantastic performance that only adds to the movie)