A Heartbeat Away (2010)

Critic Reviews

• Giles Hardie, Sydney Morning Herald

  For those unfortunate enough to be locked in a room with this film, look out for Isabel Lucas' eyewatering recreation of the famous dance scene from Flashdance, for anyone else, take heart in staying away from A Heartbeat Away.

• Matthew Pejkovic, Matt's Movie Reviews

  In its lofty ambition to reach the heights of Baz Luhrman inspired fantasy, A Heartbeat Away ends up becoming the worse type of Australian bred fantastical farce.

• Jim Schembri, The Age (Australia)

  Unspeakably bad...This film will do nobody any good and should not have been released.

• Matthew Toomey, ABC Radio Brisbane

  I'm describing it as being like the pilot for a cheesy 90s sitcom that no television network wanted to buy.

• Leigh Paatsch, Herald Sun (Australia)

  According to our hipster hero, you can't get more sonically 2011 than Red Hot Chili Peppers. So in the spirit of such whip-smart with-it-ness, a message to all involved with the making of A Heartbeat Away: give it away, give it away, give it away, NOW!

• Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald

  It smells like desperation to me.

• Margaret Pomeranz, At the Movies (Australia)

  It's very clunky and very clichéd.

• Craig Mathieson, sbs.com.au

  Not only does [Edwards'] approach fail, it nosedives into terminal velocity, rendering A Heartbeat Away an annoying, close to distressing, viewing experience.

• David Stratton, At the Movies (Australia)

  So determined that audiences will love it that it falls into the trap of feel-good cliches.

• Anthony Morris, The Vine

  Seriously: you have no idea how badly you need to make sure you and your loved ones stay away from this.

• Annette Basile, FILMINK (Australia)

  For the most part, this proves a flat and underwhelming affair which redeems itself with a solid ending and a strong ensemble cast.

• Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

  Struggles to find the right tone to elevate the basic elements to something more than the sum of their parts

• Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile

  While the film clearly has a good heart, the emotional arc is totally missing and as the tale comes to its climactic conclusion, we feel little of the elation that we should be experiencing

Read all 13 critic reviews