Fernando Trueba’s “Haunted Heart” (2025) is about two people running away from their pasts. It’s the kind of premise that can lead to intense tragedies. However, Trueba’s film doesn’t look or feel nearly as tragic, at least in the beginning. Instead, it feels like a warm, breezy, and innately sensual tale about two people who can’t help but get drawn to each other. It doesn’t shy away from embracing sensuality, but it presents it with such elegance that it would be hard not to be enamored by its central relationship. That doesn’t mean that the film is devoid of flaws.
Their romance can be a hard pill to swallow considering the power dynamic at play. However, it doesn’t seem to concern the filmmaker. He seems far more invested in exploring the fine line between love and desire and what mistaking one for the other can lead to. In this case, intimacy is only a byproduct of their desire. The film is more about how their desire stems from their mutual disconnect from their pasts. By the end, it gets increasingly challenging to look away from their haunting memories.
Spoilers Ahead
Haunted Heart (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Haunted Heart,” co-written and directed by Fernando Trueba, revolves around a Spanish owner who moves to a remote European island to work at a boutique restaurant owned by an American man.
What happens in Haunted Heart?
The film opens with Alex (Aida Folch) stepping onto a boat to an island. She arrives at a seaside restaurant to speak with Max (Matt Dillon), who once agreed to let her work as the hostess. However, she shows up there a week after she was supposed to. So, by then, he had already hired someone else to do that job. She gets all worked up and reveals how difficult it was for her to travel from her home in Spain. He listens to her speak while trying to offer her another job instead. She reluctantly agrees to work as a waitress, still fuming over his actions.
Alex cannot believe that, despite all that she had been through to reach that island, Max doesn’t offer the job she came there for. Still, she starts working there with Chico (Juan Pablo Urrego) and Ilya (Kika Georgiou). Max also offers her a place to stay on the other side of the island that you can reach only by boat. She falls for the island’s charm and gets fond of Chico and Ilya’s company. Within a week or so, she starts getting attuned to the rhythms of the restaurant’s operations. It also makes her realize how much Chico adores Ilya. Their magnetic chemistry is palpable from a mile away. Amid this hypnotizing world, she finds herself falling for someone: herself.
How do Alex and Max fall for each other?
Alex and Max do not start on a positive note. She is upset that he doesn’t give her the job. He acts nonchalant. Soon, he tells her about the job’s seasonal nature, which means she can work there only for a few months. If she wants to leave, he requests that she tell him two weeks in advance. He also implies that she may want to resign because she is young and may find a lover soon enough. Overall, he seems enigmatic to her. It might have been what compels her to woo him. She seemingly makes the first move when they’re at work, but he doesn’t respond. Later, at Ilya’s wedding, she asks him to join her for a dance. He resists.
Initially, Max’s nonchalance may feel like a sign of his respect for her youth. He understands that he is old and doesn’t want to get into such a relationship. However, he soon accepts her advances and spends a night in bed with her. When she asks what he likes about her, he cannot say anything specific. He’s unlike her past lovers (whom she fleetingly mentions), who adored something specific about her. However, that doesn’t stop them from having a romantic relationship. They seek each other at any chance they get. He also offers her the hostess position for her to stay with him throughout the year.
Still, Max always keeps his cards close to his chest, letting Alex see only a part of him. Around this time, she finds a photo of him with a woman and a kid. She wonders if he’s playing with her feelings while he has a family elsewhere. So, she packs her bags, intent on leaving immediately. He makes a scene to stop her. It feels uncharacteristic of him. Still, she believes when he tells her about the woman and the child. He reveals that he has not been in touch with them. Max implies that he left her because they were addicted to drugs, and he wanted to move on from that part of his life. That’s not the only thing Alex learns about him.
Haunted Heart (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Alex ever learn what happened in Max’s past?
After learning about Max’s ex-girlfriend, Alex realizes that Max is actually Paul Frye, a child prodigy who grew up to become a famous Jazz musician. She finds one of his music records titled ‘Haunted Heart.’ It also explains why he has a classical flute in his room. However, he refuses to explain why he left that flourishing life. As the relationship grows, he becomes obsessed with her. He eavesdrops on Ilya talking about Chico falling out of love with her — implying he has feelings for someone else. Max assumes that this ‘someone’ is Alex. So, he becomes vigilant of her making any advances toward Chico.
Soon, Chico leaves the island, hoping to start a life somewhere else. He tells Alex that he loves her, but she doesn’t respond. Max still thinks that she has feelings for this man. By winter, Chico learns something shocking about Max’s past. Max/Paul was a key suspect behind the mysterious death of his actress girlfriend, somewhere in a canyon. He reaches out to Alex to warn her about it. Unfortunately, instead of her, Max notices Chico’s voice message and deletes it. Later, when Chico arrives there on a ship, Max seemingly bludgeons him to death. He buries Chico’s corpse on the shore and returns to his life as if nothing had happened, but the reality soon catches up with him.
Can Alex ever leave Max’s island?
The local authorities arrive at Max’s restaurant to ask about missing Chico. They believe Alex might know a thing or two about it since Chico had been calling her repeatedly throughout the week before he seemingly disappeared. Max feigns ignorance while Alex gets haunted by her thoughts about Chico. She finds it strange that Max feels nothing for Chico’s likely death. Soon, she discovers Chico’s dead body buried on the island. Max realizes that she knows what he must have done to Chico. So, he tries to silence her, but to no avail. He ties her to his bed and says he is willing to share details about his past.
Alex doesn’t listen. Instead, she escapes and starts running around the island, hoping to stay away from him. Soon, she sees a boat and tries to get its attention, but there’s no response. So, she decides to walk into the water, seemingly to end her misery. Max sees her and brings her back to his place. He behaves kindly and offers her a meal once she wakes up. Yet, it doesn’t work because she knows what he is capable of. So, she hides a knife on her plate to protect herself. He realizes that. So, he uses it to stab himself to death. In the end, Alex covers Max’s dead body and burns it along with his place on the island. She sits right in front of it, leaving her fate in the dark.
What does the ending mean?
The flames might get someone else’s attention and help Alex escape that hellhole. However, that’s not necessarily the point the film is trying to make with the ending. The final moments seemingly show her not letting her past dictate her present anymore. After all, the film is largely about these two people wanting to be with each other for the wrong reasons, defined by their histories. The script implies that Alex was in a troubled relationship before, which is why she decided to leave as soon as she learnt about Max’s other relationship. It might be why she wanted to leave her home in the first place. However, the past also dictates her behavioral weaknesses.
Alex trusts Max quite easily despite the red flags. It might be rooted in the things that her past, problematic relationships normalized for her. Max also wants her, compulsively, because he sees it as the only sliver of hope to be in a romantic relationship. Alex stays with him even if he doesn’t tell her anything about his past, and believes everything he says. So, he entraps her, knowing she is as helpless as he is. A part of him may also see it as an act of kindness, even if it is anything but that. That’s why the stabbing seems like a symbolic gesture of him resigning to his fate, while burning might be a gesture of her letting go of her past behavioural flaws.
Yet, the ending doesn’t seem hopeful either. Alex still has to contend with a world away from her home and her past lover. Even if we don’t learn exact details about her past, it becomes clear that she doesn’t want to return to where she came from. So, the final moments leave Alex’s fate open for interpretation.
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