Chemical Hearts (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Friday, August 21

R Running Time: 93 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Assuming teens bounce over to Amazon Prime, Chemical Hearts is a movie they will likely binge, watch, and rewatch countless times over.

  • Austin Abrams and Lili Reinhart are talented actors and Chemical Hearts shows their ongoing maturation as leading performers.

  • People love the book it seems. And if that happens to be you - then click play and see how they compare.

NO

  • Reinhart and Abrams give this all they can, but Chemical Hearts suffers from stilted dialogue, contrived ideas, and nothing distinctive from countless other teen-oriented dramas out there in the world.

  • The privilege is strong in this one.

  • Underwhelming from a screenplay standpoint. No supporting characters are given any depth, a set of aloof, bumbling parents make things aggravating, and this just underperforms in many, many ways.


OUR REVIEW

In our social media and digital age, movies, books, and music have attempted to document or connect us to the teenage experience. As our youth ironically become equally more isolated and connected through apps and social media interaction, there is no shortage of artists attempting to provide a glimpse into this world, but to also try and reflect a world back to the very teenagers they are trying to reach.

And so…along comes Chemical Hearts, a new film written and directed by Richard Tanne (Southside With You) that means well, but also rushes through a dense playbook of struggles and emotional entanglements that makes the movie feel heavy and overwrought from beginning to end.

Based upon Krystal Sutherland’s 2016 novel “Our Chemical Hearts,” we meet Henry (Austin Abrams), 17, a boy who believes it is easier to write down his thoughts than engage with people. He is quiet, soft-spoken, a bit of a shoegazer and sees himself as a hopeless romantic. His passion for writing gives him the opportunity to become editor of the school newspaper his senior year. That is, until a monkeywrench in those plans arrives in the form of Grace (Lili Reinhart).

Grace is a transfer student who finds herself chosen to be co-editor of the paper with Henry and he is instantly drawn to her. She wears oversize clothes, walks with a limp and a cane, and has a mysterious, push-away-type of personality. Naturally, if you have seen one movie involving teens fumbling around with emotions and love and trying to see where they fit in the world, Chemical Hearts proves largely predictable. Henry and Grace find themselves spending time together, almost in spite of each other, and this provides ample opportunity for Tanne to flood his film with every formulaic plot-point he can.

Not familiar with Sutherland’s book, I wonder how this all reads. As a movie, we can see most, if not all, of the melodrama coming well in advance.

Odd wrinkles are thrown into the mix involving Henry’s older sister Sadie (Sarah Jones), studying to be a neurosurgeon, offering monologues to her younger brother about chemical reactions in the brain when we feel emotions and the related effects on the body. Or we have Henry’s aloof parents who have two silly scenes where they obviously have no awareness of how to relate to their son. Honestly, he might as well be some random guy renting a room in their house. And Henry apparently has two best friends he seldom interacts with and who are likewise given almost zero backstory.

As Henry and Grace learn more about one another, Grace becomes a puzzle. Her moods and emotions rise and fall. She pushes Henry away and then brings him back into the fold. Cue the themes of first love and longing for Henry. You’ve seen this all before; Chemical Hearts feels like any number of teenage films which you could go find right now on the streaming service of your choice.

And while Amazon Prime may not be a teenager’s first destination to find a movie like this, the movie has just enough in the story to likely keep them watching. Abrams and Reinhart are good actors and likely known to the target audience here with Abrams’ recent stint on HBO’s “Euphoria” and Reinhart starring on the CW’s popular series “Riverdale.”

And honestly, younger viewers will be more open and receptive to the film than older, more jaded viewers. That said, unintentionally Tanne takes the youthful eye for granted, believing that because Henry and Grace merely exist in the story, kids will naturally care about them. To most everyone else, patience is required to try and enjoy this because, objectively speaking, the stilted dialogue, perfectly curated indie-pop soundtrack and apparent message that all problems can be solved through gaining the confidence of being loved by another, feels a bit simple, trite, and on-the-nose.

By the end, audiences will run through a gauntlet of themes around suicidal ideation, struggles with tragedy and loss, loyalty, trust, the pains of falling in love, accepting one’s self for who they are, and those incessant references to chemical interactions in the body. If Sadie’s soliloquies to Henry aren’t enough, then don’t worry – Henry narrates a few for us in voiceover!

Chemical Hearts fails to bring anything new to the table. Well-intentioned but underwhelming, younger viewers will likely spend whatever time they want with this and then bounce on to the next thing. Or go on TikTok. Maybe hit up YouTube or Instagram. Or just find episodes of “Euphoria” and “Riverdale” to watch. They will likely enjoy that a whole lot more in the long run.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Lili Reinhart, Austin Abrams, Sarah Jones, Adhir Kalyan, Kara Young, Coral Peña, C.J. Hoff, Bruce Altman, Meg Gibson, Shannon Walsh.

Director: Richard Tanne
Written by: Richard Tanne
Adapted from the novel, “Our Chemical Hearts” by Krystal Sutherland
Release Date: August 21, 2020
Amazon Studios