 Director: Francis Ford Coppola Studio: Columbia Pictures Genre(s): Drama Rated: R |
There is a sense of romanticism of marriage in “One from the
Heart” that may seem strange on the outside. For it revolves around a married
couple who are no longer happy. They fight more than they make love, and at
least one of them – Frannie (Teri Garr) – believes that the marriage is
officially over. They live in a quaint house just outside the city of Las
Vegas. While their lives are dark and falling apart, the City of Sin shines
brightly just behind them. If they want to spend a night on the town, who knows
what new life journey they could embark upon?
The phrase “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vega” is a saying for a reason: people go there to make a fortune, find love, and make all the mistakes that other societies would frown upon. So many things happen in the city that would normally ruin lives, but no one speaks about them, making it the ideal city to cut loose and indulge in a bit of debauchery. This may be why Francis Ford Coppola decided to film “One from the Heart” on a sound stage rather than going to the actual city itself; he isn’t striving for realism so much as he is striving to create a dreamlike environment for the audience.
For once the characters begin roaming the streets of Vegas
it feels like anything is possible. An actress can pop into town and have the
thirty-second interaction that could result in her choosing to go to bed with
you. Or maybe you run into an old fling, one who not only crones like Sinatra,
but has such charisma that when he starts dancing the whole town starts dancing
too. It’s the kind of town we who are watching can only exist in dreams. Coppola
knows what movie magic looks like though, and he has taken care to create a
world that – while whimsical and beautiful – is clearly fake.
What does feel real is Frannie and Hank (Frederic Forrest), who are perfect as the couple who are feeling that their marriage is coming to an end. While Vegas may provide the illusion of a city of dreams, neither of theirs has come true. He wants to own property and live a simple life. She wants to go to France and experience the world before her time is up. Both are susceptible to being swayed by false promises and illusions of things that cannot be, which is why they are bound to make mistakes as they enter the city that makes promises that are as much of an illusion as the sets it is built on.
That’s probably why the film was misunderstood so much upon its initial release; audiences were expecting a deep character drama of two people who were falling out of love. When watching the film, it is clear that the character development is lacking compared to his other films. Yet “One from the Heart” is not a movie about these two people so much as it is about the dreams these two people believe to be true that simply aren’t. They can have a nice night on the town and give into their fleshly desires, but when the sun comes up their lives must return to the real world, and there’s no amount of dreaming that can change that.
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