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Poster for The Heart Elsewhere

The Heart Elsewhere

2003 · 1h 47m · UNRATED Comedy, Drama, Romance
Directed by Pupi Avati

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Overview

The Pope's tailor sends his son, a virgin at 35, to Bologna hoping he will find a woman. Nello, a classicist moved by the romantic poetry of Ovid, proves to be a good teacher and also falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful Angela Gardini. Angela, herself recently blind and then spurned by her fiancé, uses Nello: she hopes her former lover will become jealous and return to her. Nello obliges, his head full of poetry and in love at last; he's happy to be near her, knowing that she, before her disability, wouldn't have looked twice at him. Bologna or Rome, teaching or stitching, love or solitude - will Nello make choices?

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
71%
Tomatometer
Rotten

Avati provides no real emotional counterweight for all the whimsy and nonsense, and the movie carries neither the force of morality nor the titillation of trashiness.

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Fresh

A mostly pleasant entertainment.

Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
Fresh

Charmingly embodying the dreamy seeker, Neri Marcore as Nello has a dignity and forcefulness that illuminate this winning tale.

Michael Booth, Denver Post
Fresh

A poignant love story, laced with tenderness and gentle humor and told with the warmth of Italian movies in their seductively good-natured mode.

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Rotten

Under Avati's shaky stewardship, the picture is leaden and charmless.

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly

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