(1981)
1.5
Donald Guarisco
This offbeat mixture of science fiction, comedy and romance was a boxoffice dud and is much reviled by sci-fi and cult film fans. However, time has been a little kinder to Heartbeeps than one might expect. John Hill's script has some significant problems (the plotting is weak, the human characters are ciphers) that were exacerbated by studio tampering but there is a sweet, naive quality to the romance between the two robot heroes that is genuinely intriguing. Allan Arkush's direction brings a nice visual sweep to the film, a tactic that is aided nicely by lavish scope-format photography by Charles Rosher, Jr. Tina Hirsch's editing gives everything a punchy pace and John Williams contributes an unique orchestral/electronic musical score that does a lot to set the film's unusual mood. Most importantly, Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters manage to infuse their necessarily mannered performances with a level of heart that makes the proceedings more compelling than one might expect. The end result is definitely a specialty item but Heartbeeps can be an amusing if deeply twee diversion for those viewer in the right forgiving mood. One's reaction to it will depend a lot on nostalgia for this era, the performers involved and eccentric Hollywood misfires.
Heartbeeps on AllMovie
Heartbeeps (1981)
