For a movie that has a lot on the platter, "Hearts Beat Loud" traverses what foreshadows to be rough waters with a calm, realistic paddle. It has the squeaky clean, educational discovery flavour of the "ABC Afterschool Specials" of TV past, without veering towards any convenient conclusions. The movie just plays out, which as it turns out, is part of its refreshing charm.
"Hearts" works best when focusing on the father-daughter dynamic which is the film's core, keying on Nick Offerman's perfectly understated role facing a personal crossroads struggle. Inserting veteran, recognizable faces Ted Danson and Blythe Danner proves distracting, as is the stilted Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) cameo. Confusing decisions for a film that aches to be small. Smartly, these are but brief interruptions and melt quickly into the background. This is a father film. Period.
As Frank, the judgemental owner of a struggling vinyl record shop, and a single parent to an itchy yet whip ass smart teen, Offerman brings a calm yet burning restraint when faced with major life decisions. His usual poker face satire stance from a wonderful comedic career, being replaced with a surprisingly dramatic nuanced one.
The movie lingers a tad too long on some pieces (warning: there is plenty of music, plus plenty of nerdy music references), and leaves much unresolved, but that just might be the point of delivering this sweet slice of casual life. Hearts actually beat soft.
