This Crazy Heart

This Crazy Heart

When 30-ish rich kid Lenny has to take care of 15-year-old David, who’s suffering from heart disease, it’s the beginning of a wild adventure. Lenny fearlessly breaks all the rules to fulfill his young friend’s every wish.

Partying every night, accidentally sinking a sports car in the pool, that’s totally Lenny’s idea of fun. And having fun is all he cares about. He lives in his dad’s villa, squanders his dad’s money and thinks he’s some kind of playboy. At the same time, 15-year-old David gasps for air in bed in the dull council high-rise where he lives. His mother rushes him to the hospital. David has had a heart condition since birth. No one knows if he’ll live to turn 16. These two worlds collide when Lenny’s heart specialist dad shanghais his son into taking care of David. David’s world is one of clinics and operating rooms, Lenny’s world is all babes, clubs and parties. To keep it simple for himself, Lenny helps David with the things he wants to experience at least once before it’s too late, the easy stuff: Go shopping for cool clothes, steal a car, things like that. Then Lenny realizes David’s life is hanging by a thread. It’s too much real responsibility for ne’er-do-well Lenny. David decides he wants to meet a girl and fall in love. How’s Lenny supposed to swing that? But he’s already bonded with David. A friendship results that’s so serious, so intense, so wild, as if there’s no tomorrow – which may be true.

THIS CRAZY HEART is a moving true story of joy and hope for the next day, of dreams and intense friendship. German superstar Elyas M’Barek ("Suck Me Shakespeer", "Who Am I") plays the leading role, while Philip Noah Schwarz delivers a dramatic big-screen debut at his side. Director Marc Rothemund ("Sophie Scholl", "My Blind Date with Life") directed the story with ample feeling and quick pacing.

– Press Clippings – 

“The story certainly offers potential for a heartwarming film; and the director's mix of authenticity, humor and emotions is also fundamentally successful. That is also due to the right cast: Both Uwe Preuss, Philip Schwarz and Nadine Wrietz play very convincingly and bring the necessary humanity to the film. As Lenny, Elias M’Barek is the cool daredevil, but still manages to show depth at one point or another.”
Cineman

"With heartfelt and intense acting, a gripping screenplay, a pacing that accelerates when needed and stops to reflect at the right moments, the film manages to explain and raise awareness of certain issues that are too often marginalized. It is easy to label this film as a paen to life, but that would be too simplistic and reductive, tempting as it is. "This crazy heart" is a symphony to the joy of learning, maturing and growing up despite the problems. It's the “despites” that make a person great.
Cinematik

“Director Marc Rothemund demonstrates very skillfully how one can operate the mechanisms of mainstream cinema with dignity here too.”
Sueddeutsche

“With the adaptation of the novel “This stupid heart”, director Marc Rothemund has made a true film about an unconventional friendship, which bypasses all the kitsch and cliché traps that his colleagues usually fall into.”
Wessels-filmkritik