Lawless Heart

Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger's Lawless Heart follows the broken strands of human connectedness in the wake of a boating accident off England's Isle of Man that takes the life of a young man named Stuart. There's Dan, Stuart's brother-in-law, who'd give up on life himself if that didn't require so much effort, played with a tender weariness by Bill Nighy. There's Tim (Douglas Henshall), Stuart's childhood best friend, a free spirit who escaped rural dreariness and is returning home now, on a summons, unaware at first of whose funeral he's attending. And there's Nick (Tom Hollander), Stuart's longtime boyfriend, struggling to deal with both the emotional loss and the financial ramifications of the relationship's ending, for which there are few social or legal guidelines. The stories of the three men unravel in a series, one after the other, so that we get only glimpses, at first, of how their relationships with Stuart affect their lives without him. But it's precisely because the full richness of Stuart's life emerges only in retrospect that the impact is so powerful. This is a film as heartbreaking as grief itself and as unexpectedly lovely as that warm certainty that our beloved friends and family continue to inspire us even after they're gone. Recommended. (M. Johanson)