UNTAMED HEART 

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return

Bear with me for a minute: This isn’t Louis Malle, yet Untamed Heart touches at the same core, provided that you are familiar with feelings of passion and not too much of an intellectual to dismiss this film on the grounds that it looks like your typical Hollywood romantic drama recipe with a more or less predictable twist. No. Untamed Heart is in many ways flawed, in many ways naïve, in many ways inconsistent, but the real enchantment it contains easily throws away all these flaws, and removes any type of prejudice if only we let ourselves be enchanted.

Untamed heart is a modern fairy-tale about Love, Passion and Sincerity (all written with capital letters) that takes place in a working class setting in Minneapolis.

The film begins by showing us an event that occurred in the past at an orphanage. Adam is a small boy who lives at the orphanage. He has a serious heart condition that makes him faint and puts his life at risk, so much so that he needs heart surgery. A nun tells him a fairy-tale-like story about him having the heart of a baboon, possibly in view of encouraging him to feel stronger, more confident and less fearful of his faith.

The story moves to the present time, and now in his mid 20’s, Adam, (played by Christian Slater), is shy and mysterious, he never speaks to anyone, works as a dishwasher in a diner and lives alone with his dog.

Caroline, (played by Marisa Tomei), works at the same diner as a waitress. One night Adam saves Caroline from an attempted rape on her way home after work. Caroline is grateful and curious, and Adam slowly breaks his self-imposed silence and distance. Caroline is the first person he truly opens up to. Slowly, they find themselves inevitably drawn to each other.  

There is a wonderful sense of chemistry between them, and Christian Slater plays Adam with the right measure of mystery and innocence. Until the day he met her, all he had was his records and particularly a beautiful haunting theme he refers to as “magic”, Roger Williams version of nature boy, which I feel compelled to share here:

Untamed heart reminds us all that it’s Love that creates princes and princesses and not the other way around. The film is simply moving, and will make sense to anyone with a heart.

Untamed heart ends with the classic Nat King Cole rendering, and these hauntingly beautiful lyrics:

There was a boy

A very strange enchanted boy.

They say he wandered very far, very far,

Over land and sea.

A little shy

And sad of eye,

But very wise, very wise was he...

Until one day,

One lucky day he passed my way,

And while we talked of many things

Fools and kings,

This he said to me:

"The greatest thing

You’ll ever learn

Is just to love

And be loved

In return."

What I love about Untamed Heart is that it doesn’t try to aim higher than it actually gets. It doesn’t try to be an epic and shattering love drama. It’s just there, quietly and innocently illustrating how simple and how beautiful life can be if only we believe in enchantment. 

Well deserving of a solid 3,5 stars rating. Watch it.

RELEASED: February 1993

Director: Tony Bill

Running Time: 102 mn

Cast: Christian Slater, Marisa Tomei

Rating: 3,5 stars