Young Hearts **** (2024, Lou Goossens, Marius De Saeger, Geert Van Rampelberg, Emilie De Roo, Dirk Van Dijck, Saar Rogiers)

The 2024 coming-of-age romantic drama film Young Hearts daringly but delicately tells the story of a Belgian boy who is thrown into emotional turmoil when he instantly falls in love with his new neighbour Alexander, a boy of the same age.

Debut writer / director Anthony Schatteman’s 2024 Belgian-Dutch coming-of-age romantic drama film Young Hearts daringly but delicately tells the story of 14-year-old boy Elias, who falls in love with his new neighbour Alexander, a boy of the same age.

Elias has nice friends and has a nice family but he increasingly feels like an outsider in his village in the Belgian countryside, both at home and at school. But when he meets and instantly falls in love with Alexander, his same-age new next-door neighbour, Elias is in emotional turmoil. He’s supposed to have a girlfriend, Valerie, for goodness sake.

With it rose-tinted, or maybe pink-tinted lens, Young Hearts has a wide and popular appeal, particularly to the young adult audiences it seeks to entertain and educate.

As all the adults in the Belgian countryside are so incredibly nice, Young Hearts (2024) is perhaps a shade too sentimental and optimistic, especially at the end, but it is still a very carefully handled, big-hearted and infectiously hopeful gay story of first love. Yep, how do we need this hope and optimism right now.

To be fair, there is opposition and struggle at the start of the film, with homophobia and bullying in Elias’s school, and tension later as the bad boys come after the duo. Actually, there is always a nagging feeling that this story won’t end well, especially when Leonardo De Caprio’s tragic Romeo + Juliet is accessed, with Alexander dressing up as Leo at a party. It’s okay, though, neither boy has seen it.

It will be remembered that the 1976 disco song Young Hearts Run Free was covered by Kym Mazelle for the triple-platinum soundtrack of Romeo + Juliet in 1996. Ah yes, Young Hearts. Neat.

In a natural, detailed, winning performance, Lou Goossens is brilliant as the little battler for truth and love as Elias, whose only real opposition to happiness is himself, suddenly overwhelmed by his feelings. Luckily, he’s going to get over himself, with a little bit of help from his exceptionally wise, canny and caring, grandfather (Dirk Van Dijck).

When Elias has alienated all his friends and family, granddad whizzes in to save the day. The old man and the boy bond lovingly. If there’s one thing he’s learned, granddad says, it’s to follow your heart. The actor glints and twinkles so well that he sells this corny old line like you’ve never heard it before. The point is, the boy is 14, and he has never heard it before.

Elias has got a lot to put up with. The poor boy has got an idiot dad (Geert Van Rampelberg) who writes and performs idiot pop songs, about first love of course. And he’s got a stern-looking, clingy, less than understanding girlfriend (Saar Rogiers) too. The kid doesn’t stand a chance really, or does he? Luckily, he’s got a much more sensible, grounded and caring Mom (Emilie De Roo) and a reasonable sort of older brother (Jul Goossens, Lou Goosens’s real-life brother).

But most of all, he’s got Alexander. Or has he? Marius De Saeger exudes the right confidence and assurance as Alexander, who upturns Elias’s world when he reveals that he was in love with a boy back in Brussels.

Young Hearts is a fine romance. It might stir up some controversy, but it takes no prisoners: it’s never too early to discover your true self, man up and seize the day. It’s the same old message, but saying it never gets old, at least if you can find a fresh way of saying it, and Anthony Schatteman does. The film might actually make some friends and influence people, especially the young adults and their parents and teachers that it is carefully aimed at.

The cast

The cast are Lou Goossens as Elias, Marius De Saeger as Alexander, Geert Van Rampelberg as Luk (Elias’ father), Emilie De Roo as Nathalie (Elias’ mother), Dirk Van Dijck as Fred (Elias’ grandfather), Saar Rogiers as Valerie (Alexander’s friend and Elias’ girlfriend), and Jul Goossens as Maxime (Elias’ brother).

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,366

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