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Heading South
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Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: On the sun drenched island of Haiti in the '70s, foreigners idle away their vacations in the palm-fringed paradise of the beach hotels. Brenda (Young), Ellen (Rampling) and Sue (Portal), three North American women, converge on the island looking for flirtation, relaxation and respite from their colorless jobs and marriages. They find what they are looking for in Legba (Cesar), an enigmatic local Adonis whose beauty and passion has them enthralled. It is this passion that will lead them away from the gilded cage of tourism and will open their eyes to the poverty stricken and dangerous world of Haiti. (Celluloid Dreams)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Phil Hall
    100
    Cantet weaves a dark, disturbing story of hedonism, casual racism and the lethal consequences of self-indulgence in his superb drama Heading South.
  2. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    Heading South is a hydra-headed love story, as dangerous as it is heated and complex.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Ray Bennett
    60
    Cantet keeps a lid on a story that he could have easily exploited, but he makes his points about beauty, fulfillment, self-indulgence and delusion with a measured hand.

See all 26 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 3 out of 9
  1. FredM.
    10
    The film's theme - middle age female sexual tourists in the hellish Haiti of the 1970s - will undoubtedly be misunderstood by those seeking a conventional fantasy island romance or a political thriller. The story develops in a rather simplistic way presenting its characters without being judgmental at a pace commesurable to the island life. Its portrait of white women in their 50s paying poor young black men for sex and the murderous brutality of the Haitian political regime is presented realistically without melodrama. It is refreshing to see a film attempting to capture life in Haiti as it really was without resorting to Hollywood fakery and not being afraid of presenting older women driven by sexual desire.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. KenG.
    4
    Nothing really works here. Much of film is simply too dull, and talky, with little going on, until it makes a belated, and rather clumpsy attempt to drag itself into thriller territory late in the story. Also, the characters aren't really well drawn, (accept for Rampling). Young's character is seriously underwritten. You get little sense that anyone was giving much thought to her character, as she almost comes off as a silly romance novel heroine, as the lonely woman, feverishly determined to recapture the lone organism of her live, with her dream lover. Please, couldn't they have just made her a woman looking to reconnect with the guy she had great sex with? And her "dream lover" is too much of a blank page to make it believeable that both Young and Rampling would be madly in love with him. The fact that he was a blank page, might have been filmmaker's point. That the women didn't care who he was, they just wanted to use him. But it doesn't work. And the plump French woman, just seems to be hanging around the movie for no particular reason. The filmmakers simply weren't as interested in developing their story and characters, as they were in delivering messages about women, sexual tourism, exploitation, and colonization.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. JeB.
    3
    great actors, fascinating locatiion--terrible script. so bad, it's laughable. no believeable characters. these over 40 women have no lives. apparently, their only pleasure is screwing young black men. dialogue that makes one's eyes roll to the back of the head. was hoping for a political film abt. Haiti in the 70s. this is a film made by aging males with an ax to grind.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 9 User Reviews