Amazon Prime released a new movie to add to the collection of coming of age stories on August 21. Movies such as “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Paper Towns” are similar in writing and should be as enjoyable to watch as “Chemical Hearts.”
It is based on the book called, “Our Chemical Hearts” by Krystal Sutherland, and the movie was directed by Ricard Tanne. It had the same concept that has been done before: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, and girl changes boy in some life learning way. Rather than it being relatable is came off as unrealistic and predictable.
The movie started with a boy name, Henry Page. He liked to write and he hoped to be editor-in-chief with his school’s newspaper. Along with him getting the position, his teacher pulled in Grace Town who just transferred to the school to work alongside him. Grace Town was not too interested in the part of editor-in-chief but reluctantly agrees to be on the team and Henry starts to get close to her.
We have seen it done many times before. Grace Town, who is played by Lili Reinhart, was supposed to be this character that is brooding, mysterious, and a loner. She was hiding her past and slowly started to open up to Henry Page.
Reinhart played her part very predictively that it almost seemed cheesy, overdone, and at some points very frustrating. It did not feel genuine and not very relatable at all. Austin Abrams character, Henry Page, wanted to know what it was like to fall in love. Abrams played his character very nonchalantly rather than a confused teenager who is trying to figure out life. It was not very exciting until he got his heartbroken.
The movie held a great life lesson in love and how it can be like the best time in your life, but it can also be one of the worst times of your life once it has ended. The different thing I saw in this movie was that there was not a happy ending where the boy gets the girl and lives happily ever after. It ended with both going their separate ways. Which was refreshing, to say the least.
The movie could have also been better at showing how teenagers acted or talked. When some of the characters talked in the movie you could start to cringe internally from the dialogue, and teenagers do not tend to be making out in the library anymore these days.
Overall, the movie was cheesy where you can almost laugh at the serious parts of it because of how dramatic it can be. The film also had a heartfelt side where it had its tender moments where you can be amazed by the quotes they used. If the coming of age stories pique the interest enough for those who like them then, “Chemical Hearts,” would be decent to watch.