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Untamed Heart
Untamed Heart
Role: Caroline
Release: 1993
Director: Tony Bill
Cast: Christian Slater, Rosie Perez
- Tagline: Together they make sense.
Caroline is a personable but unlucky-in-love waitress. When she is rescued from two attackers by Adam, a shy busboy, an unlikely romance develops between the two–a romance threatened by Adam’s need of a heart transplant.
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Facts & Trivia
- The script was originally set in New Jersey.
- Jim’s Diner, where much of the movie takes place, is a real diner in Minneapolis and was closed to the public during filming.
- Although the movie takes place around the winter holidays, much of the filming took place in the spring so artificial snow had to be used.
- Marisa wanted her accent to be authentic so she insisted on a native Minneapolis driver to help her perfect it.
- Geena Davis, Demi Moore, and Madonna all expressed interest in playing Caroline.
What Marisa Says. . .
- “Working on this film was wonderful. My big problem was the cold Minnesota nights.”
- “I wanted to do this because I wanted to do a romance.”
- “It’s really about letting go of her picture of who she’s supposed to be with - of who society thinks she should be with.”
What the Critics Say. . .
- What keeps the film together is Tomei’s performance, and [Tony Bill]’s recognition that the emotions she’s calling up are the real thing. She pulls you into Caroline’s spunky despair without ever condescending to the character. “Untamed Heart” may be one of those “little people” love stories but we never think of Caroline in such terms. She’s an original because Tomei brings a new-minted freshness to every moment, every gesture.Audiences who know Tomei from her delicately raucous work in “My Cousin Vinny” will hardly recognize her here. She’s the kind of actress who doesn’t let you see the technique or the sophistication in back of the performance. She can play an adoring passion-flower like Caroline and her innocence never seems forced in any way. Tomei has a quality in this film that some of the best silent actresses had: She seems maidenly without seeming insubstantial. Her ardor is her ballast. She keeps the movie honest.
- Untamed Heart, a captivating romantic comedy and tear-jerker, is the best gauge yet of Tomei’s talent. If she got an Oscar nomination for Vinny, she more than deserves another one next year for Heart.
- Marisa Tomei brings a wonderful authenticity to her role, playing every little nuance with tenderness while conveying the fragile nature of human emotions. When Caroline invites Adam to a Christmas dinner and finds out that he had been sitting outside on the porch for two hours, she tenderly says to him, “You’d rather be out here in the cold, playing with a cat than in a room full of strangers.” It is an indication of Tomei’s talents that she can deliver this dialogue in a manner that is consistent with her character.
- Still, if Untamed Heart is often too precious for words, there’s one thing in it that feels miraculously fresh: the performance of Marisa Tomei, who follows up her rollicking caricature of a streetwise Italian dish in My Cousin Vinny by proving that she’s a major actress. With her flashing dark eyes and libidinous overbite, Tomei is adorable-she looks like a flirtatious bunny rabbit-but what’s astonishing is the range of expression that passes over those delectable features. Though too sexy to be truly plausible as a down-in- the-dumps waitress who can’t keep a guy, Tomei rescues her role through sheer eagerness. She gazes at Slater with such ardor and delight that he’s transformed, and so is the audience. The primary emotion stirred in me by Untamed Heart was the desire to see Tomei in a movie that’s half as good as she is.
Lisa’s thoughts. . .
This is, by far, one of my favorite Marisa movies. Although the dialog can be a little sappy at times, Marisa’s performance is top-notch. She brings a believability and vulnerability to Caroline that few actresses would be able to. You see Caroline at the beginning of the movie getting dumped, again. From there, we watch Caroline go from depression and the typical self-loathing that goes along with being dumped to the joy and feelings of self-worth as her relationship with Adam blossoms. Marisa is absolutely fascinating to watch as she portrays these emotions with such a subtle passion that you could almost miss it if you’re not watching closely.