The Canadian director of 2008’s Martyrs and 2009’s I Killed My Mother tells a tale embarrassingly familiar to many in his latest film...

“The only truth is love beyond reason”, says the opening quotation of Heartbeats, warning us that what follows won't always be easy viewing. We're propelled straight into the bitterness of rejection as three people speak of tales of love triangles that parallel the film's central story.

When “self-satisfied golden Adonis” Nico (Niels Schneider), attracts the attentions of best friends, Marie (Monia Chokri) and Francis (Xavier Dolan), their relationship starts to feel the strain as they both unsuccessfully compete for his affections, constantly trying to undermine each other. Spoilt Nico lives off the rent money his father gives him, and his mother's allowance, existing in his own bubble oblivious to the affections of his latest über-cool admirers: Marie resembles Audrey Hepburn in Technicolor while Dolan himself looks like an underwear model, young James Dean or Michelangelo statue (a parallel he is certainly aware of).

Heartbeats is jam-packed with excruciating scenes, such as those showing Francis and Marie's desperation to be loved by Nico. Funny insightful sections of the brutally honest opening interviews are cleverly interspersed throughout the film, reminding us of the universal agony unrequited love brings as the funniest and most poignant interviewee complains “Jean Marc takes forever to answer my e-mails”. A mountain-top hide and seek sequence is full of sexual tension as is a “striptease” marshmallow campfire munch-out while Francis' frenzied act of clothes-sniffing masturbation is particularly awkward to watch, tinged with both heartache and humour as he hurriedly tries to pat down an erection. The mysterious bathroom wall tally chart keeps us guessing, and cigarette bath-tub scenes signal Marie's neurotic descent.

"Heartbeats is seductive and dangerously alluring."

Dolan favours zooming in and out to get up-close-and-personal with his characters. Heartbeats is certainly a sensual smoky film with long zoomed-in segments of intimate touching that are perhaps a little self-indulgent at times. A retro soundtrack monopolized by an awesome steamy Spanish version of “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”, perfectly accompanies the slick clothes and imagery of our young twenty-something modern fashionistas paying homage to retro chic. Other memorably-shot scenes include repeated use of singular Reservoir Dogs style entrances and an uncomfortable strobe-lit party.

Showing he's a talented all-rounder, Dolan writes some beautiful lines that are both heartfelt and funny. He perceptively compares rejection to a “guillotine” and one of our candid interviewees recalls an original rejection line: “I don't want to waste my life loving you badly”. The bitchy jealous party persona Marie takes on when the object of her desire is threatened is particularly comical: “Who is she - a prostitute from Blade Runner?” The entrance Nico's pampered ex-dancer mother makes is another unexpectedly funny scene as she muses: “What's a pair of tits to a toddler?”

At times an exploration and celebration of human beauty, like Nico, Heartbeats is seductive and dangerously alluring. A meditation on unrequited love and idolisation, it's full of well-observed humour from an outsider's perspective. If you're unlucky enough to have experienced the film's tortured subject matter first hand, it's awkward to watch – almost as humiliating for viewers as it is for the characters. It's likely to dreg up deeply distant memories of brutal rejections, humiliation and the awkwardness of fancying someone without knowing their feelings. Thought-provoking, Heartbeats perfectly captures the disappointment of rejection, ways we torture ourselves and crazy justifications we sometimes create to explain our actions.

Director/ writer: Xavier Dolan
Running Time: 95 mins
Certificate: 15
Starring: Xavier Dolan, Monia Chokri, Niels Schneider

Heartbeats goes on theatrical release in the UK today.

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