The Heart Knows (now on Netflix) is a tug-your-heartstrings romance that’s literally about hearts: Benjamin Vicuna plays a rich man in need of a heart transplant, and the donor is a poor man, and after the surgery and funeral, the rich man meets the poor man’s widow. But it gets complicated, as only movies about rich men with poor men’s transplanted hearts who meet the poor man’s widow can be.
Marcos Carnevale directs this Argentinian drama. There is diverse representation in Valeria’s single mom empowerment, and Argentinean actors play a wide range of characters from various ages and body types, although a non-neurodivergent actor plays a neurodivergent character. The film offers positive messages like sticking to your values, prioritising community over self-interest, and learning that money can’t buy happiness. To stay in the loop on more movies like this.
The Storyline
Juan Manuel, a cold-hearted businessman, receives the heart of Pedro, a humble man. While investigating the origin of his donor, he meets Valeria, the widow, and falls in love with her. Concealing his identity, he fights to save Pedro’s neighbourhood, without revealing that Pedro’s heart beats in his chest. Juan Manuel learns that the organ donor is from El Progreso. Coincidence or destiny. He follows the intuition and curiosity of his new self to El Progreso, where he looks like a Benz guy in a Chevy land, and promptly steps in dog crap.
The Critical Part
Perhaps you can see where this is going. Juan Manuel’s sister Deborah (Gloria Carra) and best pal Tony (Peto Menahem) learn that he needs a heart transplant. Vale works at the corner bar and grill and helps out with the med-centre project. Juan Manuel feels like a different person now, not the privilege-saturated party guy he used to be. There could have been moments where the makers could have explored his personality in great detail and what exactly brought a shift in his behaviour. But they fail to do so, which makes the movie lopsided. It was like once the operation was done, he was a changed man, as if some fairy godmother cast a spell on him in the middle.
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The Characters
Valeria (Julieta Díaz), Juan (Benjamín Vicuña) are well-acted and nuanced characters, but somehow Valeria nailed it to bring original depth in the show; the narrative was predictable and one-dimensional.
The Conclusion
Overall, The Heart Knows movie tries its level best to make it appear rich in emotions and romance; however, the audience is not convinced of the same. We definitely want more because the plot definitely had a scope that was left unexplored. Midway, you might even question yourself as to why you decided to watch this because of the age-old gimmicks that this film displays. With many other new releases for the weekend, you can pass this film for something better.
IMDb Rating – 5.7/10
Written by Nilesh Shiv