With Love and a Major Organ, directed by Kim Albright had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 29, 2023. The title is set in a world where hearts are made of inanimate objects. People suppress emotions and are more inclined to follow along than make their own decisions on how best to live their lives. Enter Anna Maguire (Violation,) Anna is not only uninterested in the online dating apps that can tell you how long you can spend in a room with a potential partner before you are annoyed but she has a much wider range of emotions than most of the people around her.
Anna often engages in conversations with a therapist who suggests that all of her intense emotions are merely emotional toxicity. In this unique environment, nobody desires to be toxic. There are wellness spas specifically designed to help eliminate bothersome intrusive thoughts. Taking care of oneself entails spending a day at the spa. Unwanted emotions are best left in a more suitable location, like a dark room or on the floor where they naturally belong.
With Love and A Major Organ creates a peculiar yet beautifully expressive world. One day, Anna witnesses a man weeping near a cliff by the sea. He reaches inside his chest, pulls out his heart, and abruptly stops crying. Without a second thought, he turns away and departs as if nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Anna tries reaching out to her mother to discuss this bizarre occurrence, but lately, she hardly spends time with her. Moreover, it seems like every question Anna asks only drives them further apart.
With Love and a Major Organ Movie
Nevertheless, Anna is the odd one out when compared with her friends and the people she works with. While her best friend is busy on dating apps trying to find a husband, Anna decides she wants an organic connection. She meets George (Hamza Haq (NBC / CTV’s Transplant) in a park as he reads the newspaper. Honing in on the aspect of a nice gesture from another human, George tears out the bad news before he gives her the paper to read now that he is finished with it.
“An app cannot create love.”
Quote from the movie With Love and a Major Organ
In a real-life version of what it would look like to “give your heart away,” Anna first pours hers out. She records a letter to George after acknowledging that the earthquakes inside her chest equal love at first sight. Perhaps some love is toxic. The type that conforms to nothing. The feelings that rise to the surface have no rhyme or reason for the veracity in which they emerge. Anna rides a wave of pure emotion that doesn’t stem from knowing someone intimately or well.
My heart rubs at your ankles like a stray cat”
Quote from the movie With Love and a Major Organ
“I Can’t”
Still, you can’t help but cheer on Anna’s unadulterated effort. And when George responds with not only far less enthusiasm but turns her down, Anna decides to rip her own heart out too. More to the point, Anna delivers her heart to Geroge.
“I hope my heart torches you eternally with emotion.”
Quote from the movie With Love and a Major Organ 2023
With Love and a Major Organ translates the complexities of relationships from a cacophony of angles. Albright’s science fiction-infused narrative buckles you in for a roller coaster of observations. Is it better to have loved and lost or should you love to the fullest? Posing more questions than answers Julia Lederers’ script is inciteful and, thoughtful while offering some amusing ideas about life. A generally successful film, the final quarter was a touch disappointing but certainly doesn’t detract from the rest of the movie.
| Kim Albright’s debut feature, With Love and a Major Organ |
“With Love and a Major Organ” is based on a screenplay by Julia Lederer of the same name.
Looking for more movies where a major theme is artificial intelligence? Watch Subservience or Mother/Android next.
With Love and a Major Organ is rated
4 sand-filled holes out of 5
With Love and a Major Organ | Official Trailer | Circle Collective
