I sat down to watch the 2021 movie "Heart of the Home" here in 2021, without ever having heard of the movie prior to watching it. So I wasn't sure what to expect from writers Sami Sonnesso and Elisabeth Steen-Nokleberg.
And while "Heart of the Home" is a watchable movie, it just ultimately fell into that particular trope of thrillers with having to share a home with a psychopath. Yeah, there is a bunch of similar movies out there already with the same storyline, more or less, and many of which fared better and proved more entertaining than what "Heart of the Home" turned out to be.
I will say that there were definitely aspects to the storyline here that were rather interesting, but some dubious directing from David Palmieri just put the movie in bad light at times, because it could definitely have been done better.
The acting in "Heart of the Home" was somewhat staggering and wooden, which lead to some of the scenes being cringeworthy or coming off as horribly staged and forced. Especially with some of the delivery of the mediocre dialogue. The movie was held afloat almost exclusively by the performance given by Mia Ando.
I do like the police that turned up in the movie, as they didn't give any warnings before slapping handcuffs on a person, or the fact that they totally ignored the victim on the ground with a knife wound and didn't even bother to check for life signs or start on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Great writing right there.
"Heart of the Home" feels like a film school project, but I am sure that the people involved in the making of this movie were enjoying it.
I sat through the entire ordeal here, and I find myself less than averagely entertained by what "Heart of the Home" delivered. Sure, it is watchable, but it is not an outstanding movie, nor a particularly memorable one.
My rating of "Heart of the Home" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. Watchable yes, but not a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.
