Heartlands

This film stars Brit Michael Sheen in a type of character he was playing earlier in his career. Colin, a shabby shopowner (Sheen), is in a state of arrested development. Darts is all Colin is good at, and he worships a well-known dart champion. He doesn’t know his wife is having an affair with a friend, who in a fit of jealousy throws Colin off their dart team. So Colin goes off on his motorcycle to the championship himself in an effort to get his wife back. On his trip he meets a cheap, blowhard barowner (Mark Addy), a backpacking couple (Mark Strong and Phillipa Peak), and a Girl Guides leader (Celia Imrie).

Finally Colin reaches Blackpool, where the wife’s boyfriend gets his comeuppance. She wants to come back to Colin though, now tired of her boyfriend’s treatment of her.


Colin is quite a pathetic character, in the worst way, and the film has us feel for him for this reason—although I just thought he was a loser on all fronts. Not like I wished his wife would cheat on him, but what did she see in him in the first place except as a pushover to do what she wanted? And what did he see in her to want to marry her? The film didn’t show enough of what love they once had, to justify us caring if they got back together or not.

The better bit is the road trip. There is an underlying theme of a positive attitude to life and kindness from strangers, who treat Colin better than his friends and family. Mark Strong’s character is very likeable and treats Colin in kind, genuinely listening to him as if he were someone interesting. The Girl Guides leader's joy in life is also infectious to Colin, whose sad sack attitude is like some sort of karmic curse. The blowhard continues to be so, but his girlfriend and her daughter, whose personalities have been negatively affected by him, blossom with buried happiness at an amusement park when they escape for a day out with Colin. These offers of friendship, though short-term, instill a courage in Colin to take charge of his own life and live it the way he wants.

The best bit is the cinematography, taking interesting views of nature and well-composed indoor shots, good color and interesting settings. There are also some folk music performers that are very good, and their songs are a backdrop to Colin’s problems.