The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Sensitive performances from the young cast ensure that the story ultimately acquires poignancy, and the arresting physical setting helps disguise the familiarity of some of its coming-of-age signposts.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Iceland, Denmark · 2016
2h 9m
Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Starring Baldur Einarsson, Blær Hinriksson, Diljá Valsdóttir, Katla Njálsdóttir
Genre Romance, Drama
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A remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thor and Christian experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it's time to leave the playground and face adulthood.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Sensitive performances from the young cast ensure that the story ultimately acquires poignancy, and the arresting physical setting helps disguise the familiarity of some of its coming-of-age signposts.
Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein
Despite its need for serious narrative compression, this remains an emotionally authentic, often poignant look at growing up and growing aware.
Sympathetic as Thor’s journey to awareness is, Heartstone’s languid, rollingly repetitive storytelling never quite justifies its weighted focus on his character at the expense of his friend’s more active anguish; a more judicious edit could place both in sharper relief.
Beautifully shot, touchingly performed and delivered with a thrillingly atmospheric sense of place, Heartstone lets us meditate on these themes during that long last summer, when childhood seems like it’s going to extend, agonizingly, forever, only for it to be snapped abruptly away like a shout on the wind.
Screen International by Sarah Ward
Affecting as well as perceptive in how it intimately depicts the awkward blossoming of youth, Heartstone wades into the crowded coming-of-age genre with just the right amount of confidence, compassion and clear-eyed style.
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