Francis Ford Coppola derailed his career with One from the Heart (1982), an expensive flop that destroyed the goodwill from his '70s masterpieces. It's an inedible confection of phony glamor and soggy sentiment, pretty but painfully miscalculated.A Las Vegas couple, Hank (Frederic Forrest) and Frannie (Teri Garr) grow bored of each other and drift apart. Hank takes up with high-wire artist Leila (Natassja Kinski), while Frannie grows attracted to waiter-musician Ray (Raul Julia). Frannie nearly runs away with Ray, who promises her "paradise," but finds that her heart's still with boring old Hank. Will Hank realize it, too?
One from the Heart has the stink of an "experiment" designed to please no one. Coppola recreates Las Vegas on studio sets, all ornamented scrims, gaudy matte paintings and neon lights. Admittedly, there are clever images, like Hank's junkyard full of discarded casino signs and vintage cars, but more often Vittorio Storaro's color-filtered photography does nothing more creative than theatre-style scrim dissolves. The movie looks like a '40 melodrama but Coppola never commits to it.
Coppola undercuts the Vincente Minelli homage by spicing it with dirty domestic drama. Hank and Frannie's whiny arguments belong in Five Easy Pieces; launching them into a Gene Kelly reverie doesn't work. Armyan Bernstein's script clanks with stale repartee, forced romantic banter and flat characters. Ray gets a funny scene bantering with his boss (Alan Garfield), but Leila's junkyard high-wire act is a bad joke. None of these characters are sincere enough to care about, nor is the material light enough for the fantasy to take flight.
The highlight comes when Ray tangos with Frannie in an extended Red Shoes fantasy, bursting through a tropical backdrop into the street. It's a fun, sexy scene that briefly vitalizes Heart . But Coppola can't control himself; the number drags on interminably as random extras join in, escalating it to a cast of thousands debacle. Then Leila starts crooning atonally in a garish animated cutaway. At least this silliness provides a respite from Tom Waits' soundtrack, which comments on the action in the most literal fashion possible.
Frederic Forrest and Teri Garr, veterans of previous Coppola flicks, are vapid, unlikeable sad sacks. They lack the charm, charisma and chemistry to carry the picture. Raul Julia's smooth, self-effacing performance redeems a few scenes, but Natassja Kinski's vapid as ever. Harry Dean Stanton and Alan Garfield enliven minor roles; Lainie Kazan, as Frannie's hardboiled friend, nearly steals the show.
At one point, Hank complains that Vegas is "phony bullshit - nothing is real." That line perfectly describes One from the Heart, which doesn't even have the courage of Coppola's convictions. Rather than romantic escapism, it's a garish, self-indulgent slog.
