Heavy Heart (2015) Toronto 2015

Herbert is a former boxing champ from the days before the Berlin Wall fell. Reduced now to being a bouncer and collector, he suddenly finds he's in his last round as a neurological disorder is going to kill him in a very short time. With no time left, he has to come to terms with everyone in his life.

Devastating film will undoubtedly seem like a retread of any number of similarly plotted films. I can't argue that it's not so I'm not going to try. I will argue that Peter Kurth as Herbet gives a performance for the ages. Whatever you think about the plot, there is no way you can not say that Kurth gives one hell of a performance-and it will move you to tears.

What is so amazing about Kurth's performance is that he physically transforms from a big bruiser of a guy who is truly scary, to a small broken man moving around in a wheelchair. Kurth's performance is on par with, if not better than Eddie Redmayne's in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. While Redmayne's performance is most certainly Oscar worthy, you never got a sense of physical diminishment  that you get from Kurth. As the film goes on your heart breaks not only for the situation that Herbert finds himself in but also because we truly see how a great man has fallen, even if it's only camera tricks and physical shifts in the body. By the end of the film you will be wiping away a tear or two even if you know you really shouldn't be doing so.

Definitely worth seeing.

The film screens two more times at Toronto
Mon Sept 14, 3:30pm, Scotiabank 7
Fri Sept 18, 3:00pm, Scotiabank 2
For tickets and more information go here