Passing Hearts

I've fortunately never been involved in a situation where I or anyone I'm close to required an organ transplant of any kind. I've even more fortunately never been in a situation where someone close to me has died and donated those vital organs to another person in need.

I thought this film was really good. The only thing I found possibly strange was that Daniel was so secretive about him wanting to meet the parents of the child who had pretty much saved his life. I didn't really understand why he wouldn't want his own mom to know, but maybe when you undergo such life altering surgery they recommend not to connect yourself to the organ donor's past life. I get that we as the audience weren't supposed to know he had received an organ transplant and that he was planning to visit the donor's family, but I feel as if he could have still told his mom and we could have been kept in the dark.

I think I'm dwelling on something pointless, or rather something that did have purpose and I'm just missing it.

Anyway, I really liked how the audience was left to imagine what was happening in the film. We weren't directly given a plot, and I enjoyed the "twist" at the end. At first I thought Daniel was going to run away, and then, upon seeing the couple, I thought he was visiting his birth mother (As in he was adopted and his birth parents wanted to reconnect). I realized what was really happening when the donor's mother showed him her son's bedroom.

A very good film, and I feel like watching it as someone who dealt with this in their personal life would be heart wrenching and very emotional. Leeper mentioned a few years back a student watched this film and talked about how she was on a list for a donor heart. I would have loved to have been present during that conversation just to try and understand what emotions and thoughts must be going through one's body and mind during such a situation. Overall, I found this to be a very interesting and thought provoking film.

- R.