Teenage love. Almost every adult has experienced it, and every teen will soon experience it if they haven’t already. Although, is what they are feeling at that age really ‘love’? It could be. It could also just be infatuation, emotional attachment, or just a flood of hormones that the body is acclimating to with the change of age and biological growth of the human body. Chemical Hearts is a new movie, based on a novel, which addresses this head on along with also examining how teenagers deal with loss, pain, trauma, as well as how they grieve.
She’s been a stripper in Hustlers AND a high school sleuth in the popular series Riverdale; Lili Reinhart is now trying her hand at ‘executive producing’ in this new movie, as well as taking the lead as one of its co-stars. She plays Grace Town, a teenager in her senior year who used to be a social butterfly and track athlete before a devastating car accident changed the course of her life. On the other end is Henry Page, played by Austin Abrams, who is the hopeless romantic audiences have seen time and again, only now in teenage form. With a passion for writing, he’s selected to be a part of the school’s newspaper. Grace is also picked to join the team, and though first reluctant she then relents and decides to take part. From there Henry and Grace get to know one another, experience ‘love’, deal with heartbreak in separate ways, and go through what can only be called a ‘rite of passage’ as they move towards finishing school and starting their adult lives.
Adapted from Krystal Sutherland’s novel titled Our Chemical Hearts, Richard Tanne pens and directs the screenplay for this drama that tells a unique story on what many teenagers go through during that time in their life.
Adapted from Krystal Sutherland’s novel titled Our Chemical Hearts, Richard Tanne pens and directs the screenplay for this drama that tells a unique story on what many teenagers go through during that time in their life. The movie is suitably shot, directed competently, and responsibly performed by both Reinhart and Abrams. Reinhart showcases a much different version of her than fans of her work will be used to seeing, noted in her physical staging of the character and her emotional one. Though at times the physicality was inconsistent, she was never lacking and nailed down the most important parts of her onscreen persona. Most of Abrams task required him to play off of Reinhart and to reciprocate her energy, which of course he does with care and class in this outing. As this story is certainly a character driven account, the leads embrace that notion with the upmost awareness.
Viewers will be split on their opinions of the movie, as will those who have read the book, though that will likely always be the case with adaptations so this is nothing new. Chemical Hearts was supposed to be theatrically released, but plans have changed so it’s available online. Amazon Prime Video is as of this moment streaming the movie, so it should be available to anyone that has an account or for those who wish to rent it.
