Review of Heart of a Child

Introduction

"A poignant, compelling drama, based on a true story." Words like that on a DVD cover are enough to strike fear into your heart before you`ve even taken it out of the case. On first glance, Heart of a Child appears to be the sort of low-budget made-for-TV film that clogs up daytime schedules, or makes up most of the output of satellite/cable channel Living.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that I can tell you about it is that it has several X Files connections. The most obvious is composer Mark Snow, as this is just one of the one hundred or so projects that he has worked on. The connection continues with Terry O`Quinn, who appeared in Fight the Future, and is rounded off with William B. Davis, the infamous Cigarette Smoking Man.

Video

A made for TV movie brings with it a made for TV picture, with an average full frame transfer (described on the box as "PAL 4:3 Academy", which is a rather over the top way of saying standard 4:3 TV picture).

If you`ve managed to keep reading this far then you won`t be expecting much visually, and you`d be right as you don`t get very much to stimulate your eyes. Some scenes of hospitals, some scenes of people having dinner and some scenes at night.

Audio

A DD2.0 stereo soundtrack, which is about as unremarkable as the visuals. I`ve already mentioned that Mark Snow was involved, and fans of his work will find some of his familiar themes running throughout the soundtrack. If you want to listen to the dialogue you`ll find that it is clear throughout. And that`s about all I can find to say about it.

Features

Very brief biographies, brief background to the story and some trailers for this and other titles from the studio.

Conclusion

"A poignant, compelling drama, based on a true story" it isn`t. An incredibly dull and tedious piece of television it certainly is. As I mentioned in the introduction, if you susbcribe to satellite/cable channel Living you can probably see this kind of thing all day long. I can`t imagine why you would want to buy it on DVD when there are so many thousands of better DVDs available.

If you really, really must have it, then at least it`s a budget title so you won`t have to save up for too long to buy it.

Avoid. Please.