Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, originally titled Jack et la mécanique du coeur, was translated from its original French and was released in 2014. Its arrival to Netflix has allowed this little-known, 93-minute CGI film to be available for recognition. The film is a romantic fantasy about a boy with a clock for a heart who must follow three rules to keep it ticking:
1. He must never touch the hands of the clock
2. He must never lose his temper
3. He must never fall in love
Predictably, he fails to follow any of the rules and thus his story begins.
Though this review will not contain spoilers, the basic plot of Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is easy to deduce. Luckily, its animation and interesting soundtrack present wonderful contrasts to the film’s predictability. The animation displays the characters as if they are dolls, rather than people, and several aspects of the film, such as characters, props, backgrounds, colors, and use of light and shadows, resemble something out of a pop-up book or dollhouse.
If the interesting take on the artistic visuals aren’t enough, the film is full of symbolism and presents several examples of figurative scenarios translated into literal events, leaving the viewer entertained and inspired. The imaginative display makes the film initially difficult to appreciate, however those who continue watching will soon find themselves engulfed in a world of the impossible, the beautiful, the frightening, and the romantic.
There are several instances in which the characters break into song, but there are a few moments in which the expectation of a song is disconcertingly replaced with a character simply switching from prose to verse. This unusual performance is immediately noticeable and initially distracts from the lyrical dialogue, however it can be appreciated as yet another example of an embellished contrast to its prosaic plot.
RottenTomatoes critics gave the film a rating of 70% with comments that range from “Beautiful and hallucinatory…[a] revelation” to “The film is at once enabled and hindered by its utter strangeness, an intrinsic quality surely exacerbated in its English-language release.” The audience ratings fall to 61%, with comments that include “Superb in every respect. The true art of cinema, don’t miss it!” and “It was strange and just okay.”
As indicated by the comments and the above review, the film requires an open-minded audience in order to be fully appreciated. Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is an inspired abstract tale that cannot be enjoyed by people who are limited to accepting only the literal. Even with an open mind, the film is far from perfect. Plot holes, unanswered questions, and the pedestrian plot are what keep this film from a score of five stars, however the refreshingly bizarre cinematography coupled with moments of superb dialogue earn Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart a 3.5/5.