“Chemical Hearts” movie

Based on the debut novel of Krystal Sutherland, “Our Chemical Hearts” I enjoyed the film and thought the production values were fantastic with great use of natural spaces and lighting for effect. As a teen romantic film, it didn’t strike the usual angsty, drama-filled tortured tones we’ve come to expect. I feel it delved deeper into darker themes that teens sometimes experience during the aftermath of a tragedy. A theme that was in the book and was represented in the film, is Kintsukuroi - a Japanese method of mending broken things with gold, making them beautiful again. Through the film, Henry is working on a vase he broke and is slowly mending together. I felt it served as an allegory for the story because while he was mending the vase, he and Grace were also mending broken areas of their lives and relationship.

Overall, I felt this film-story was more introspective and serious. There were no laugh-out-loud moments, like I had with the book. The film seemed to skip this part of their story, showing a montage of clips that show Henry and Grace laughing and growing closer. This was a story that focused more on first love. And loss. And life. And friendship. Favorite quotes from the film:

“When you’re a teenager, the chemicals in your brain drive you to make decisions that rip you away from the safety of your childhood and drag you into the wilderness of adulthood.” When I think about it, I agree. As teenagers we must make decisions, good and bad, so we can learn from them. And it is the learning that drags us into adulthood.

“A friend once told me that adults are just scarred kids who were lucky enough to make it out of teenage limbo alive. I urge you to go outside and look at the world through that prism. Look at your parents and older siblings. Look at strangers you pass on the street. Look at them and imagine that at one point in their lives, they too walked these halls. They too felt the unbearable loneliness, the absolute unbearable powerlessness and darkness of being young.”

I remember having a thought for a long time, that adults are just bigger kids. I feel the thing that makes these “bigger kids” adults is the ability to meet and handle life’s responsibilities.

“We tend to think of scars as ugly or imperfect, as things we want to hide or forget. But they never go away. --- scars are not reminders of what’s been broken, but rather of what’s been created.” Scars, both physical and in our minds, can be growth. Change. A catalyst for learning about ourselves.