Heidi is apparently some sort of franchise about a young girl living with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps, and it's got a whole series of books and movies and plays and musicals based on it, and much like some of those, this movie has songs in it. Calling it a musical might be a stretch, because the songs are few, pretty short,with a lot of sing-talking present.
Absolutely not my usual thing, a family and kid-friendly 70's musical, but I did somehow not hate this! I couldn't tell you why. Of all the moods I could have been in, there was some level of vulnerability which I had that made me more susceptible to the childlike plot and all around happy feeling the movie instills in the viewer. Also, acting was pretty good if I do say so myself.
Heidi is living in the mountains with her grandfather, they have no running water or electricity, they just chill out and as the song later acknowledges, with his age gaining, it's a "who's really take of care of who" scenario. Heidi loves him deeply, and with her parents gone, he's all she has. So when he begins to go blind, and realizes he has to give her up, it's bad news. He goes missing, Heidi goes to stay with a friend in New York who has her own problems with a perpetually absent father and a missing mother figure of her own. She's got infinite money, but not enough to buy happiness.
The movie is a lesson on the fragility of life, the need for family bonds, and how one can over-complicate their lives, taking away the focus from the things that really matter. The girl with everything simply wants love and not the whole rigamorale, the girl with nothing is happy but envious of the luxury the other girl takes for granted. In that way it's pretty good observation on the human condition, where we often take for granted what he have, focusing instead on what we don't, and we get caught up with convincing ourselves we're not happy.
The singing parts were slightly irritating, but fine. The acting was pretty much fine, the rest was about as you expect. Nothing too bad, nothing too outstanding in this entry. I will say for what it was I enjoyed it, and I honestly think if I had watched it at a different point in my life I wouldn't have liked it as much. So, in this case it comes out winning. It's for sure not the type of thing on a blog called "Grindhouse Review" but let's be honest, I've strayed far FAR away from the simple reviews that a title like that would imply.
I give this.... Oh man. I simply have no idea. 4 stars seems incredibly high. 3, very low. 3.5 seems not quite right. Hmm... what the hell. Enjoy, Heidi.
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