“Heavy-handed in its symbolism and does not allow for any ambiguity”

Human anatomy is frequently depicted by concrete images, with clear textbook visuals coming to mind when one pictures organs, such as hearts, lungs, and brains. However, director Kim Albright’s latest film With Love and a Major Organ—based on Julia Lederer’s 2016 stage play of the same name—takes a far more abstract approach, envisioning a world where data and statistics are valued above emotion, and a person’s heart takes on a unique physical form. On paper, the plot seems to have the makings of an unconventional rom-com. Anabel (Anna Maguire) sees a man tear out his own heart from his chest, something she did not know was even physically possible. Unable to deal with the emotional burden of caring too much about others, Anabel decides to give her own heart—in the most literal sense— to George (Hamza Haq), a man she develops an unrequited crush on after a chance meeting at the park. It is a decision that affects them both and leads to unexpected emotional developments. While the initial premise has potential though, the film itself leaves much to be desired. 

For a film so heavily focused on emotion, With Love and a Major Organ makes it difficult to empathize with its characters. Anabel and George represent opposite sides of the emotional spectrum at any given time, with one feeling too much and the other feeling too little. However, they fail to come across as fully realized individuals. The film is heavy-handed in its symbolism and does not allow for any ambiguity; this causes it to often feel predictable, spoon-feeding the audience information instead of allowing them to interpret it themselves. Rather than Anabel’s heart being a lantern in a purely metaphorical sense, this concept becomes overly literal. The majority of the film’s runtime also feels quite tedious as it plods along from scene to scene without a particularly engaging narrative to follow. It is far more interested in trying to be a character study of Anabel and George, and their respective struggles with emotion, than it is in a coherent plot. Even the side characters—Anabel’s friend Casey (Donna Benedicto) and George’s mother Laverne (Laara Sadiq)—seem to exist only to provide conflict and wooden story exposition rather than being compelling characters in their own right.

That’s not to say the film has no redeeming qualities. When it comes to the creative aspect, there is plenty to appreciate. The “LifeZap” app the characters use throughout satirizes society’s reliance on technology and convenience, showing how people are more than content to put their lives in the hands of artificial intelligence. Emotions are treated as something most effectively worked through not with traditional therapy, but by visiting a wellness facility where there are specialized rooms meant to absolve them. Visually there are also quite a few beautiful moments, most of which involve Anabel and her romantic fantasies. These scenes lean into the film’s arthouse quality, with soft mood lighting, vibrant colours, and a sweeping orchestral score that makes them stand out. It is a shame that by comparison, most of the film feels like watching paint dry—not the vibrant hues seen in Anabel’s paintings either, but the bland colour palette that characterizes George’s home.

Maguire is arguably given the most interesting material to work with here, as her performance in the film’s second half feels markedly distinct from the Anabel viewers have seen up until this point. Watching someone once so full of emotion and passion become cold and calculating—as if a switch was suddenly flipped within her—makes for some of the film’s more interesting moments, particularly when it comes to Anabel’s interactions with others. One of the most striking examples of this occurs during a funeral scene, where Anabel’s lack of reaction is a jarring contrast to that of the woman wailing behind her, creating a genuinely unsettling moment. There’s no denying that With Love and a Major Organ has some interesting ideas behind it, especially when it comes to the human condition and how essential it is to have the capacity for experiencing emotion. But with an hour and a half runtime that feels overly long, one can’t help but feel like it would have perhaps worked better as a short film, since the film itself sorely lacks heart.