Caroline: He doesn't make sense, I don't make sense, together we make sense.
Untamed Heart is a romantic drama directed by Tony Bill and starring Marisa Tomei, Christian Slater, Rosie Perez, Kyle Secor, and Willie Garson.
Caroline is a waitress in a small-town diner in Minnesota who has had bad luck with men. One night, when she's walking home from work, she's attacked by Howard and Patsy, two men who had been customers in the diner earlier. As Howard is about to rape her, Adam, who works as a busboy at the diner, fights them off and takes Caroline home. As she recovers, Caroline starts to fall in love with Adam. However, it turns out Adam, on top of being a little weird, has a weak heart, which he claims to be from a baboon king, thanks to a story nuns told him at the orphanage where he grew up. Will that destroy their romance?
This film contains examples of:
- All Women Are Lustful: Sometime after Adam rescues Caroline, when she's working at the diner one night, she asks Cindy what she thinks of Adam. Cindy starts listing all the things she finds wrong with Adam, including his looks, his so-called lack of smarts, and the fact, as she puts it, he has "ape parts". Cindy does go on to admit she does find him kind of cute, and concedes, "Yeah, I'd do him."
- Artistic License – Space: In-Universe: when Caroline attempts to wish on a star while she and Adam are sitting on her front porch, Adam points out she's actually wished on the planet Mars.
- Berserk Button: Do not attempt to harm Caroline when Adam is around. Also, don't talk to him about getting a heart transplant.
- Book Ends: The movie opens and closes with a piano version of "Nature Boy", and during the closing credits, we hear Nat King Cole's version of it.
- Brick Joke: Caroline asks Adam early on if he's ever been to a hockey game. Near the end of the movie, she takes him to one as a birthday present.
- Catchphrase: Whenever Caroline interrupts whatever Adam is trying to say to her:Adam: I wasn't finished.
Caroline: Finish.- He even says this in a letter he's written to her after he dies.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Adam.
- Creator Cameo: Tom Sierchio, the screenwriter, plays Caroline's date when Cindy drags her along on a double date, and is with her later when she discovers Adam has been attacked by the men who tried to rape her.
- Deadpan Snarker: Surprisingly, Adam. After he leaves the hospital early after being attacked by Howard and Patsy:Caroline: What did the doctor say?
Adam: That I'm not allowed to stick knives in my stomach. - Did I Mention It's Christmas?: The movie partly takes place during Christmastime, though the only significance about it is Adam has a second job selling Christmas trees, which is how he manages to have one he sneaks into Caroline's room on (after hearing her complain about the fake tree they have) that she sees when she wakes up on Christmas morning.
- Good-Times Montage: A number of scenes that include Adam and Caroline in bed, Caroline buying herself a car, Adam playing poker with the rest of the diner's staff (with Caroline's help), and Adam and Caroline out walking.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Caroline and Cindy.Caroline: (at Adam's funeral) I love you. You're like family, you know.
Cindy: Yeah, you're lucky I love you too. - Jump Cut: Combined with a Lipstick-and-Load Montage after the opening credits, when we see Caroline home from work and we see her in her bathroom and then her bedroom getting ready for her upcoming date.
- A Minor Kidroduction: During the opening credits, we see Adam in the orphanage he grew up in, unable to go outside with the other kids because of his weak heart, and the nun who runs the orphanage telling him a story about his parents getting the baboon king to give them his heart so they could give it to Adam.
- Orphanage of Love: The nuns who are in charge of the orphanage Adam grew up in certainly seem to treat the children like they love them, and they worry about Adam and his weak heart.
- Phrase Catcher: Near the end, when Caroline discovers Adam has given her a present for his birthday:Caroline: I have fallen-
Adam: Did you hurt yourself?
Caroline: (laughing) I wasn't finished. - Police Lineup: After Caroline's would-be rapists beat up Adam, they're put in a police lineup and she immediately picks them out.
- Rescue Romance: Though Caroline had always treated Adam nicely when they were working together, after he saves her from being raped, she falls in love with him.
- The Speechless: Everyone assumes Adam is like this (since we don't hear Adam talk for at least the first 20 minutes of the film, even as a kid), but he can speak, as we discover after Caroline tearfully thanks him for saving her life.
- Stalker with a Crush: Adam had been following Caroline home from work before she was attacked.
- Those Two Guys: The two customers at the diner who are both named Bill.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Adam ends up dying of his weak heart.
