The Dark Side of the Heart

From Eliseo Subiela, the director of the acclaimed cult hit Man Facing Southeast, this lighthearted fantasy in the Gabriel García Márquez vein stars Dario Grandinetti as Oliverio, a self-absorbed, slightly misogynist, whining poet whose standard come-on line to women is that he won't "tolerate a woman who cannot fly." With a handy eject button built into his bed, Oliverio repeatedly dumps would-be suitors of his heart until meeting up with a prostitute named Ana (Sandra Ballesteros) who, it turns out, can fly…but doesn't necessarily want to with Oliverio. Though often tiresome in the extreme during its first half--Olivero is a walking contradiction: he has the soul of a (whiny) poet and the bedside manner of a pig--The Dark Side of the Heart gradually wins you over in the second hour as our anti-hero finds (to paraphrase a wonderful sentence in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things) his "aching heart on a leash, bumping behind him, lurching over leaves and small stones." When the pair do come together, the comic and sensual sparks do indeed fly, making this Argentinean effort a strong optional purchase. (R. Pitman)