Crooked Hearts is a family drama that never once rings true. Starting with a rather sickly and typically nostalgic voice over, the film chronicles a family in turmoil despite appearing to be the perfect happy unit. It is a story we’ve seen a million times before and it has been handled with far more subtlety and insight than what we end up with here.

What we get is a melodramatic film where actions never seem driven from the characters but rather shoehorned in to help the story. It wastes a decent cast in roles that are crudely developed whilst the direction is completely flat. When the emotional fireworks do begin the dialogue is so heavy handed and on the nose that you’ll wish they hadn’t bothered. No wonder you rarely hear about this film any more.