The Good Heart


The Good Heart is an Icelandic independent film written and directed by Dagur Kári, starring Brian Cox and Paul Dano. It debuted at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

Short-tempered bartender Jacques has a heart-attack. Young homeless man Lucas fails in a suicide attempt. They share a room in the hospital. They agree that Lucas can stay in the bar, and that Jacques will coach him to become his successor. In the beginning Jacques complains that Lucas is too soft toward guests.
Lucas allows April to stay in his room, but Jacques tells Lucas that he should send her away. However, Lucas and April get married and both leave. Reluctantly Jacques allows April to come back, because he finds it important that the bar will stay after his retirement or death, and therefore that his intended successor Lucas stays.
Lucas is jealous about April's interaction with guests, and they break up. Jacques gets softer and Lucas less so. Lucas is killed after being hit by a car. His heart goes to Jacques, who has been waiting for a donor for a heart transplant. Although he always refused to sell his bar, he does so now, and starts living in the tropics, where he has friends who supplied the coffee for his bar.

Cast

gives the film an approval rating of 30%, based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Box office

The film received a domestic total of $20,930 in the United States, and in other countries, the movie received a total $322,888, making the total movie box office $343,818 worldwide.