Review of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) by Kylie P — 18 Feb 2009

Some might argue that the underlying theme here is the unbreakable bond between mother and son, but this claim is problematic on many levels. If the fictional memoir on which the film is based was literally adapted, Sarah wins her son's love by preying on his fear and abusing him, not only physically (through the introduction of drugs and the administration of corporal punishment by her boyfriends) but mentally and emotionally. The character uses emotional blackmail to gain her son's fealty, and given that he's only 7 to start, he has no weapons to combat this trauma. So, perhaps the film is designed to expose the weaknesses in the child welfare system and the foster care system. After all, how would Sarah regain custody of her son from his stable foster home unless she pulled the wool over the heads of social services? She clearly has shown no evolution or reformation toward a lifestyle that would be stable for her son. She repeats over and over again that she "fought for" him, and that he can't leave her, because she has no one else...and yet, we're provided no reasons or background information as to how she arrived at this point, making these assertions. We know she came from an austere, religious background, and that her appetites seemed to surpass the limits imposed by her totalitarian parents. We can assume that she ran away to quell those appetites, but we're given no backstory as to how this mother arrived at this juncture in her life, with her deteriorating mental state, addictions to sex and drugs, or even how she came about Jeremiah to begin with. Though the film is focused on Jeremiah's perspective, and his constant loyalty breaks the viewers' hearts only because he's too young to know any better or know how to extract himself from these circumstances, it would help to understand more of the journey and why Jeremiah is dealt the lot he is to know more about the mother. Even if the explanation fails to satisfy, at least an explanation would be offered, whereas the current tale provides none.

To her credit, Argento and partnering cinematographers infuse the film with a hip, pop-art sensibility, washing frames in gritty hues punctuated by bright colors to accentuate the surreality of Jeremiah's circumstances. Camera perspectives are employed creatively, using off-kilter or overhead shots in unexpected places to emphasize the skew of this poor boy's life. The soundtrack was supplied by Sonic Youth, Billy Corgan, and other progressive-rock contributors, and there are sneaky cameos by people like Winona Ryder. Yet, in some ways, these edgy and creative elements aid the film in glorifying the subject matter, which, hoax or not, provides little to consider other than the fact that the visuals themselves are graphic and disturbing, and that the story, what there is of it, seems to have no purpose other than to be disturbing for disturbing's sake.

Also, the performances are largely awkward and disjointed, provided as they are by strings of B-actors (or non-actors, as it were). The most believable and heartbreaking performance belongs to Jimmy Bennett as the younger version of Jeremiah, portraying the most visceral and gut-wrenching of emotions and states of mind, both sober and drug-induced. It was his convincing and mature portrayal that makes the rest of the film both marginally worthwhile and repugnant all at the same time.

In the end, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things wants to be a piece of in-your-face art, striving to challenge the viewer to find the diamond(s) in the rough of its painful story. Yet, the story as a story is deeply flawed, the heartstring-tugging and painful childhood is based on a fiction that does not deserve to be sensationalized, and the art itself is inconsistent and does nothing to redeem the film or reward the viewer for sitting through it. Also, while it seems to want to paint the picture of the undying bond between mother and son, it fails to do so in any emotionally resonant way, at least for this viewer, who remembered how the bond was formed to begin with.