ianlouisiana Review of Any Human Heart

Any Human Heart (2010)

"Never say you know the last word about any human heart"

[7/10 · 21 January 2015]

Mr Boyd's novel has this quote from Henry James on the frontispiece and is written in a style that combines Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Burgess to great effect. It follows Logan Mountstuart from his days as a rather unpleasant, arrogant public school man till his death aged 85,and is in the form of a journal. The TV series is made as a straightforward tale and suffers a lack of a narrative voice. Mountstuart had a "nearly" life.He was "nearly" a successful novelist. He was "nearly" closely involved in some pivotal moments of the 20th century. In his early life he was "nearly" as clever as he thought he was. Mr Boyd wrote the screenplay so presumably was happy with the way his work was presented on screen. Personally I found the novel had been adapted for 21st century BBC TV presentation rather clumsily,with certain aspects coarsened. Logan's love life is somewhat de - sensitized to fit in with the medium's obsession with straining bodies and tangled sheets. Such is the abysmal quality of far too many TV productions today that "Any human heart" stands out as a work of really high quality amongst the dross. The actors - as so often - seem far from my conception of the characters they play:even the great Mr J.Broadbent is a way away from my idea of an elderly Mountstuart.But this is purely subjective and shouldn't be allowed to diminish your enjoyment of a superior TV series. Whilst in the novel Mountstuart is never entirely either likable or admirable,his televised version is less ambivalent. Unlike Master Copperfield he has no doubt as to who will turn out to be the hero of his story.