American Heart

Martin Bell, USA, 1992, 114 minutes

Jeff Bridges is Jack Kelson, just out of jail and determined to go straight and earn enough to move to Alaska. What he didn't anticipate was his teenage son, Nick (Edward Furlong) turning up to meet him and tenaciously tagging along. Jack and Nick's awkward efforts at getting to know one another are the mainstay of the film. Their relationship is sensitively detailed in its painful failures and infrequent but touching moments of success, managing to evade the squishy grip of sentimentality that so often tightens around films dealing with parent-child relations.

As Jack, Bridges is wonderful; his struggle with life on the outside and his unfamiliar parental role surface as a kind of understated anguish. Times are tough, but we can see that Jack is trying desperately to do things right, to be the all-American dad and stop every-thing falling apart again. Furlong also gives a superb account of himself, carrying Nick's character along effortlessly and keeping up with Bridges all the way.

Bell's first feature is an affecting tale of estranged father and son trying hard to do right by each other under circumstances that are far from ideal. Although perhaps pessimistic in many ways, worth seeing for the integrity it displays in its handling of the story.

Review by Iain Harral
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95