RICHARD’S BLOG

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I became a playwright in 1996, having been an avid theatregoer throughout my life (averaging around 120 plays a year – watching, not writing!) I semi-retired from my day job shortly thereafter and for the next 25 years I worked only part-time, allowing me time to write. I ventured briefly into the world of television and wrote a couple of screenplays, although this pretty much came to nothing, except for TAPS making a short film of one of my scripts starring (a virtually unknown) Benedict Cumberbatch and Georgia Mackenzie, which was cool, and sufficient to get me BAFTA membership. Since the pandemic, theatre in the UK has never really found its way back to what it used to be, and so my attention has drifted more towards film. I am now fully retired from my day job and whilst I still visit the theatre two or three times a month, I now watch upwards of 500 films a year (crazy, but true!) Since I watch so many films and can write, I decided to create a blog – it seemed a very 21st-Century thing to do.
REVIEW:  Young Hearts     ★★★☆☆

REVIEW:  Young Hearts     ★★★☆☆

Young Hearts is a 2024 gay coming-of-age drama, written and directed by Belgian Anthony Schatteman in his feature directorial debut. It premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2024, but was only released in the UK on 8 August. 

The film tells the story of Elias (Lou Goossens) a fourteen-year-old boy growing up in rural Belgium, and the effect that new arrival Alexander (Marius De Saeger) has on his life. Elias is part of a loving family and has an apparently long-term girlfriend, Valerie (Saar Rogiers) – but something is clearly missing. Alexander, brought up in Brussels and, as such, much more sophisticated than Elias, is openly gay and at just fourteen surprisingly comfortable with his sexuality.

We watch as Elias falls in love with Alexander, fighting his own inner conflicts and prejudices to come to terms with his gayness. However, what is lacking is any real external conflict – it all seems rather too easy. Everyone accepts the changed Elias with barely a shrug of the shoulders and there is seemingly no problem for the young lovers going forward. This is, of course, how the world should be; but as we all know it isn’t. However, my real problem is, if this is a society where there is no genuinely little or no external conflict involved in coming out, why would there be so much internal conflict for Elias?

There are obvious comparisons with Lukas Dhont’s Closer, a 2023 Belgian film on a very similar subject which was very sad and, ultimately perhaps, a tad more realistic. And maybe that is the point – where Closer showed the real-life problems for a teenage boy coming to terms with being gay, Young Hearts shows it how it ought to be in a perfect world.

Incidentally, Elias’s father, Luk (Geert Van Rampelberg), is a middle-aged pop music sensation making hit records about appropriate subjects, first love, and so on; this may fit in with the ‘perfect world’ idea, but it seems more a comment on the parlous state of the Belgian music industry! Also, Elias’s Grandad is played by a Belgian actor called Dirk Van Dijck – how good is that?!

I enjoyed Young Hearts – it is easy to watch and entertaining, but it rarely surprises.

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