Chemical Hearts
“Rather than interrogate disability stereotypes, Chemical Hearts employs them to stunting effect.”
Title: Chemical Hearts (2020)
Director: Richard Tanne 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Screenplay by Richard Tanne 👨🏼🇺🇸 based on the novel by Krystal Sutherland 👩🏼🇬🇧
Reviewed by Alex Parker 👩🏼🇺🇸♿🌈
Technical: 2/5
Earlier this year, writer-director Richard Tanne adapted Krystal Sutherland’s YA novel Our Chemical Hearts into a film for Amazon, which follows a high school senior named Henry Page (Austin Abrams) and his romance with Grace Town (Lili Reinhart), a mysterious transfer student who walks with a cane.
Tanne employs a laser focus on Henry with the result that viewers never see events from another character’s perspective. Supporting characters, Grace included, feel thinly written as stereotypes that serve his character development. While his friends may be people of color or LGBTQ, their stories are relegated in favor of the story’s least interesting character. (Literally, Henry introduces himself by telling the audience nothing interesting has ever happened to him.)
Ultimately a paint-by-numbers YA romance, any savvy viewer will see each “twist” coming from a mile away. In the attempts to add depth, the film throws several clumsy and obvious metaphors at the viewer: Henry “Page,” who has always wanted to be a writer, is saved by a girl named “Grace.” Grace compares herself to Henry’s hobby of repairing broken pottery with gold, a practice known as kintsugi, yelling “I’m not one of your vases” in a climactic argument. Henry even has a neurosurgeon sister at the ready to explain the physical effects of heartbreak.
The film simply doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. It freely relies on tropes such as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Inspirationally Disabled Love Interest, and Dream-Crushing Handicap. Rather than interrogate such stereotypes, Chemical Hearts employs them, stunting Grace’s character development in the meantime. One has to wonder why the writers told this particular story at all.
If Chemical Hearts has one worthy element, it’s the cinematography. Albert Salas shoots with more inventiveness than the film deserves. The color grading in particular effectively communicates the emotions the film reaches for, even as the writing prevents us from getting there.
Gender: 3/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES, but barely
Chemical Hearts only passes the Bechdel Test by its strictest reading. Female supporting characters Lola “La” Haynes (Kara Young) and Cora Hernandez (Coral Peña) spend the film navigating their burgeoning romantic relationship but never talk about anything else. Other supporting characters like Grace’s mother, Henry’s mother, and Henry’s sister all pop up at various points but they only exist to make sure interesting things happen to Henry.
Grace, ostensibly a lead, has a backstory but functions to shepherd Henry through his first major relationship and teach him about love. Beyond that, she doesn’t see much development at all.
Race: 3/5
People of color appear in Chemical Hearts through characters like La (played by Young, the daughter of Belizean immigrants), Cora (played by Peña, Dominican), and the teacher who leads the high school newspaper, Kem Sharma (Adhir Kalyan, South African of Indian descent). Every other notable character is white.
Because La, Cora, and Kem each see little screen time, and never share scenes with others of the same race, they each feel tokenized. In fact, outside of one line where La says “it kills me when [Cora] speaks Spanish,” their ethnicities have no bearing on their characters and adds to the sense of shallow diversity.
Bonus for Disability: +0.50
Grace’s attempts to come to terms with her disability serve as a major part of her story arc and are perhaps the most fully realized part of her character. Her most affecting scene takes place as she hobbles down a high school track and tries, in vain, to sprint down a straightaway. When she fails, she falls to the ground and slams her cane in frustration. It encapsulates her struggles in one short, wordless scene. Chemical Hearts would have been better served by centering experiences like this more, especially towards the end of the film when it chooses to linger on the much duller story of Henry’s coming of age.
However, there are a few problems with the film's depiction of disability. Most glaringly, Lili Reinhart is not disabled. She produced the film in an executive role so her impulse to star feels understandable, but there is no reason for Grace not to be played by a disabled actor. For example, Chemical Hearts doesn't feature any flashbacks where Grace can be seen running or dancing. And when Henry looks up pictures of her from before the accident, they are all from the waist up.
Secondly, viewers never get Grace’s perspective on her own life. They see everything through Henry’s eyes. Sometimes this is literal; during the high school track scene, the camera never leaves Henry’s position from under the bleachers as he watches Grace express her frustrations. The book received flak for this very issue upon release, but Tanne doesn’t address any of it during his adaptation.
Bonus for LGBTQ+: +0.25
The depiction of La and Cora’s relationship doesn’t get the love it deserves. They’re happy together, which is nice, but they don’t exist beyond that. Henry is jealous of their love. That’s it. The relationship could've been so much more, but the film shoots for the bare minimum of “not screwing it up” and nails the target. Nothing would have changed if the relationship was heterosexual.
The emotional wrangling of Henry and Grace’s rote relationship dwarfs the time spent on how La and Cora get (back) together. Yet it’s the latter couple who proves far more interesting. It’s the first serious relationship for them both in a world where their relationship, though accepted, is far from the norm. A larger spotlight on their romance would have made Chemical Hearts all the more enjoyable.
Mediaversity Grade: C 2.92/5
Not every adaptation needs to adhere closely to its source material. Many great scripts, such as Jojo Rabbit (2019), Forrest Gump (1994), or The Shining (1980), stake their claim by using the original text as basic sketches and changing the story to better fit movies as a medium. They often end up improving on the source material.
Instead, Chemical Hearts feels beholden to its source. Running wild with the film’s characters and using them to explore its plot from new perspectives would have made Chemical Hearts a more inclusive, more interesting, and better film overall.
Like Chemical Hearts? Try these other coming-of-age titles featuring characters with disabilities.
Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements (2019)
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
Atypical - Season 1