Review of Whisper of the Heart

Heart-warming slice of life movie. PLOT: A very down-to-earth tale of a young girl who likes to read and her attempt to find her path in life, Whisper of the Heart is a lovely heart-warming film that just makes you smile. There is no exciting action sequences or grand epic setting, its all very low key and normal – you could find these characters anywhere and its easy to relate to them. More than anything else this film is a character study – we follow Shizuku as she goes about her daily life, struggles with schoolwork, devours books, falls in love and tries to find outwhat she wants to do with her life. She is a very sympathetic lead character and has a rich imagination – the only whimsical sequence with real Ghibli hallmarks in the film comes from a scene in the story Shizuku writes. The film feels a bit slow and some may find it dull due to the absence of action, but I was drawn into the film completely and found it enjoyable and refreshing.

ANIMATION: The animation has its own charm without hitting you over the head with amazement – the backgrounds are especially noteworthy, the attention to detail is just astounding. The characters are very plain and ordinary, which just reinforces the down-to-earth, ordinary feel of this film.

MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: The music is lovely – the song “Country Roads” is a recurring theme throughout the film, which kind of made me laugh a bit since I tend to associate that song with being drunk and singing off-key at the end of a night out! But the rest of the music is really evocative and sets the tone extremely well. Voice acting was nicely done too.

Overall a lovely little film if a bit slowly paced. Not my favourite Ghibli move but still a good example.