Shot in the Heart

As wide-ranging, and yet as sharply focused, as Mikal Gilmore's book.

A small-screen aesthetic is evident in the abundant close-ups and tight framing, but Holland makes it work for her.

The director, Agnieszka Holland, and the screenwriter, Frank Pugliese, have created a scenario that unflinchingly captures the feverish and desperate intensity of Mikal's quest.

Koteas and Ribisi, as two very different brothers, give realistic performances, and play off the differences brilliantly.

Ribisi is painfully intense without being histrionic.

There's a tight, urgent, and timely film hidden inside Shot In The Heart, but it's not always worth forging through all the gratuitous bells and whistles to find it.

The piece is ultimately admirable for its lack of easy answers, for its continued sense of emotional confusion.