“Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken” is the movie I watch when I just want to sit, sigh, and let my heart get melted into a big squishy puddle.
Sonora Webster (Gabrielle Anwar) is an orphan girl who lives with her sister in her aunt’s house. It’s the Great Depression, and there’s hardly enough food to go around. Sonora’s aunt makes her feel unwelcome, and Sonora has a dream: she’s going to run away and become a diving girl in a sideshow in Atlantic City. Diving girls leap onto the backs of moving horses and hang on tight while the horse dives into a tank of water. Sonora’s sure she can do it.
One day, she gets into a little too much trouble, and her aunt decides to send her to the orphanage, without her sister. She knows it’s now or never, so taking her few things, she slips out, hitchhiking her way to the place where Doc Carver’s side show is performing. She’ll audition, he’ll want to hire her, and that will be that.
Doc Carver isn’t sure what he’s seeing. A skinny, raggedy fifteen-year-old girl thinks she wants to work for him? Diving girls are supposed to be curvy, mature women, not stick figures. He refuses to give her a shot, but with a whole lot of persistence, she lands a position as his stable boy. Er, make that stable girl.
Then along comes Al (Michael Shoeffling) Dr. Carver’s very good-looking son. (This is where my ooey-gooey heart comes into play.) Sonora’s pretty much smitten with him, and besides that, they begin to form a relationship. Al helps Sonora practice to be a diving girl on the sly, and one day, they lock the other girl in her dressing room and Sonora gets her chance. She’s so good, she’s soon allowed to dive regularly, but relationships between Al and his father grow worse and worse until one day, when Al decides to leave and see if he can make it on his own. He returns eventually and he and Sonora’s relationship takes a turn for the more romantic, but then a tragedy strikes and all Sonora’s dreams threaten to come crashing down around her.
This movie is based on a true story (and you know how much I love those!) This is a wonderful family film, probably something of a chick flick but I think the guys could watch it to show the women in their lives that they love them. Come on, guys! You can do it!
This film is rated G.
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