ANY HUMAN HEART

An ordinary man leads a rather ordinary life, all the while experiencing extraordinary things and crossing paths with extraordinary people.

When we meet Logan Mountstuart (Sam Claflin) in 1920s Oxford, England, he is a vibrant and youthful college student obsessed with one thing: Losing his virginity. He and his two pals Ben and Peter take it is as a challenge to git r' done first. Though crafty Peter is triumphant, Logan one-ups his buddy by then sleeping with his friend's girlfriend. Thus begins Logan's lifelong love for women, and these women serve, in a way, as bookmarks and chapters to Logan's life story which unspools in Any Human Heart over 4-1/2 hours.

This bunch of posh smug British young men have the world at their feet, and their biggest worry never seems to be where to get their next meal, or if they will have a roof over their heads, but who will be the first to write a great novel and become famous. It isn't until Logan goes out into the real world (the adult "middle" Logan is played by Matthew Macfadyen) that he finally encounters some actual hardship. After early success as a writer, Logan hits the doldrums as a novelist, plus finds that he has fallen into marriage with an old-money family (a marriage he deems unsatisfying, though it is unclear why he got married in the first place). Logan goes to Spain as a journalist, and sees firsthand some of the true ugliness of humanity that lies beyond rich people being angry at their boredom. While there, he encounters the woman, Freya (Hayley Atwell), who will be the love of his life, for better or worse.

Any Human Heart spans literally the entire adult life of Logan Mountstuart, from college lad to frail old man (Logan's shoes are filled by Jim Broadbent from his 50's and on). As a writer, Logan is maybe not as famous as he thinks, especially as he has a writer's block that spans decades. But in the meantime, his life is filled with odd jobs and adventures, as his social circle allows him to cross paths with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming, and (most fun) The Duke and Duchess of Windsor (aka Edward and Mrs. Simpson; Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander totally steal all their scenes as the scandalous royals).

But despite Any Human Heart being over four hours long, the events in Logan's life still seem truncated. He has affairs and marriages that literally last 15 or 20 minutes on screen, before the story rushes to his next chapter. Other characters and events go in and out of his life so quickly, that if you take a bathroom break you may have missed out on an event that completely alters Logan's story arc.

I really wanted to like this series. I find both Matthew Macfadyen and Jim Broadbent to be extremely appealing actors, and they did the best they could with the material. But it didn't help that the three actors that play Logan didn't physically resemble each other, and it didn't help that Logan himself wasn't the most interesting thing about his life. You get a glimpse of what this series could have been when it returns to the voice-overs from Logan's journals. Apparently Any Human Heart was a lovely book, and these narrations give a glimpse why. Logan was a man of the written word, but unfortunately when that is ripped away, we are left with a rushed epic of one man's life.