Review: Chemical Hearts

Image courtesy of Amazon Prime.

Based on Krystal Sutherland's young adult novel "Our Chemical Hearts," the new Amazon Prime movie "Chemical Hearts" is a likable enough teen drama, albeit one that relies heavily on familiar tropes and doesn't go anywhere we're not expecting it to. It does a decent enough job of capturing the melodrama of teen romance - but like too many of its ilk, it feels the need to add an extra element (often, an incurable disease, but in this case, a recent trauma) to make it even more dramatic.

Had the story simply focused on the relationship between Henry Page (Austin Abrams), a shy high school student who has achieved his goal to be the editor of the school newspaper, and Grace Town (Lili Reinhart), a new transfer to the school who's also a writer but is somewhat detached, the film might have been a little better off. Instead, it introduces a plot element involving Grace's recent past that presents all sorts of challenges to their relationship, simply for the sake of creating drama, rather than focusing on the already existing challenges of being a young person.

In fact, that very concept is addressed by Grace when the school newspaper's supervisor tells the students working on the paper that they must come up with a concept for the year's final edition. Grace suggests the concept of the challenges of being a teenager, and the students approach the concept with interest. This might have made for some compelling viewing - but instead much of the film is spent on a tragedy of which Grace was a part, and Henry's attempts to navigate around it and try to have a relationship with the mysterious young woman.

Another issue in the film is that Grace's portrayal - despite the melodramatic flourishes - is a more compelling character than Henry, who is meant to be the shy, reserved "nice guy" and has a difficult time expressing himself in conversation - he's much better with the written word. The problem isn't that Grace is more interesting - it's that Henry is supposed to be the lead. In a strange attempt to compensate, the character has an interest in an ancient form of Japanese vase making. Don't ask.

And yet, despite these problems, "Chemical Hearts" is often charming enough. There's a nice sibling relationship involving Henry and his older sister, who's had her share of romantic difficulties, and some of Henry's sidekicks are given more personality than you'd expect in this type of film - although the burgeoning romance between a young Black woman and a Latina, both of whom are on the school newspaper with Henry, seems to exist simply to provide background intrigue, but isn't developed beyond the superficial.

Rather than portraying the two leads as your typical lovestruck American teens, these two actually have things to discuss - she likes the work of Pablo Neruda, and she has some in-depth thoughts on a class syllabus that includes "The Sorrows of Young Werther" and, not surprisingly, "The Catcher in the Rye." Henry is also a deeper thinker than your typical teenage boy - at least the versions portrayed in movies.

Reinhart's performance is also pretty impressive - despite the melodramatic aspect of her character, she pulls it off pretty well. All in all, "Chemical Hearts" isn't a bad movie at all - it has two likable enough leads and takes its teenage characters seriously, a trait that has thankfully been more noticeable in these types of movies in recent years - remember how teens used to only exist to get killed in the movies by horror villains or be in gross-out sex comedies? 

So, yes, "Chemical Hearts" has a fair amount on its mind - it's just that it doesn't always explore its concept in the most successful manner. Had it focused instead on the real-life challenges everyday teens face - rather than become the latest drama about a youth caught up in a tragic situation - it might have been even better. That being said, it's enjoyable enough.