About halfway Richard Tanne’s ‘Chemical Hearts,’ I thought to myself regarding LilI Reinhart’s character, Grace, “well, she is not the most likable character.’ and I guess upon realizing that was the moment I realized I was liking ‘Chemical Hearts.’ When watching these kinds of movies, we have more or less expectations about the stories and the characters, and this film challenged all of what I thought and expected. Grace is a broken young woman – her boyfriend died from an accident and she survived. And when she meets Henry (Austin Abrams) at her new school, she isn’t able to let go of what she went through.
Henry is a writer, and in the beginning he says that nothing has yet happened in his life that is worth writing about. By the end of the film, boy does he get an experience a couple of books worth. What I liked about the story here is that this is a different coming of age film. Grace does touch his life, but I don’t know if I can say she made his life better. If for anything, I think she scarred him, and i can just imagine how he will face future loves after what he went through. I think Reinhart is to be commended for taking a role that is not that is very complex and even unsympathetic. any other young actress could have taken a safer route. For some reason, the film resonated with me – it’s very real and not sugarcoated, and quite different from most teen movies nowadays.
Another teen, another accidental death happens in Scott Speer’s ‘Endless,’ starring Alexandra Shipp and Nicholas Hamilton. But this one seems to be a teenage rip off of ‘Ghost.’ And that sentence is all you need to know about the plot of the film. And the title is apt – the movie felt endless. If not for Nicholas Hamilton’s cute face, the film would have been a total waste of time. It almost is.
Luha Thoughts 