Andrea Dorfman’s Heartbeat, a low-key, occasionally moving Canadian film due to open in Toronto on Nov. 28 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, is about thwarted ambition, self-discovery, unrequited love and the pain of loneliness.
Tanya Davis, the former poet laureate of Halifax, stars as an aspiring musician who’s upended by stage fright in her first gig. The tone of the movie is set in the stark introductory scene as Justine (Davis) stands nervously on a stage in a dim bar, guitar in hand. As she awkwardly tries to proceed, she collapses, dashing her hopes of becoming a professional entertainer.
Life goes on, Justine’s disastrous debut notwithstanding, and in the next two sequences, she sleeps with Ben (Stewart Legere), her ex-boyfriend, and visits Lorna (Kristin Langille), her pregnant friend who’s expecting any day now.
Heartbeat chugs along quietly and resolutely, charting the ups and downs of a sensitive, attractive unmarried woman who longs for self-fulfillment, companionship and motherhood.
Thrilled to witness the birth of Lorna’s baby, Justine believes that a child can bring shape and meaning to her existence. Ben, a struggling artist, won’t cooperate. He’s neither interested in fatherhood nor in continuing his on-again, off-again relationship with Justine, who dislikes her job as a technical writer for a computer software company in Halifax.
Disappointed but not crushed by Ben’s attitude, Justine carries on, cooking meals for herself, conversing with her boss, riding her bike amid golden autumn leaves and strumming her guitar in the tranquility of her modest white cottage.
By chance, she meets Ruby (Stephanie Clattenberg), a drummer in a local band. Ruby encourages her to develop her musical talents, but more than music binds them together, as illustrated by their impromptu one night stand. Heartbeat, far from being carnal, is rather chaste, devoid of nudity or sex.
Apart from being beautifully shot, the film is graphically imaginative by virtue of its bold animated sequences plumbing the depths of Justine’s poetic soul. Davis, a singer and songwriter off-screen, melts into her role effortlessly and carries the movie with a quiet grace.
Dorfman directs with confidence and authority, making Heartbeat a keenly-observed film with a solid cast.