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With Every Heartbeat

AFI Fest During the post-screening Q&A for her lush lesbian romance With Every Heartbeat, writer-director Alexandra-Therese Keining talked about the importance of making a gay-themed movie that embraced beauty and happiness, specifically not leaving its main characters miserable at the end. Heartbeat does just that, with visuals that often look like they could come right out of a fashion shoot and a giddy dynamic between star-crossed lovers Mia (Ruth Vega Fernandez) and Frida (Liv Mjönes). That level of gloss and positivity also means that Heartbeat sometimes seems a little superficial, like the Swedish lesbian version of a slight American romantic comedy, but its heartfelt goodwill for its characters shines through the contrivances.

The setup for Mia and Frida’s meeting is a total gimmick, with Mia’s dad and Frida’s mom celebrating their own engagement at a raucous party, where Mia shows up with her fiancé Tim (Joakim Nätterqvist) and Frida seems to be putting the moves on Mia’s brother Oskar (Tom Ljungman). But when Mia and Frida end up alone at their parents’ secluded vacation cottage, sparks fly, and they’re both left with feelings they can’t quite reconcile. The out-and-proud Frida is in a committed relationship, while Mia is in denial both about her sexuality and about her dedication to poor Tim, the discarded Baxter of this particular rom-com scenario.

Keining makes an effort to take all of her characters’ feelings seriously, and both Tim and Frida’s girlfriend get their moments to express outrage at the betrayal of their romantic partners. Mia’s dad, too, has his own subplot as he comes to terms with his daughter’s sexuality, but these weighty considerations are always secondary to the heady rush of Mia and Frida’s new love, including gauzy sex scenes between the gorgeous actresses. It seems unfair to criticize a love story for being too lovely, but Heartbeat has a definite tension between the havoc its protagonists are causing and the stylish verve of their scenes together. Fernandez and Mjönes have appealing chemistry, and they effectively sell the all-consuming nature of Mia and Frida’s attraction to each other. That other characters and concerns get tossed aside in the wake is something that neither the lovers nor the filmmaker seem overly broken up about.

by Josh Bell   on 10 Nov 2011 6:22 PM   Source: Digital projection