CHEMICAL HEARTS

Name: CHEMICAL HEARTS
Item: CHEMICAL HEARTS
Author: Tess Farrand

“Flawed Teenage Romance”

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

In the Amazon Original movie CHEMICAL HEARTS, a high school senior named Henry meets a cynical new girl, Grace, at school who walks with a cane she named. When Henry misses his bus one day, Grace drives him home. Slowly, a friendship begins. The two eventually become romantically involved as they work together on their school’s student newspaper. Later, Henry learns that Grace’s knee problems are the result of a terrible car wreck that killed her then-boyfriend. With graduation around the corner and a new season of life upon them, Henry and Grace will have to make some hefty decisions about the direction they want their lives to go.

CHEMICAL HEARTS is a mediocre teen drama. It has a mixed Romantic, pagan worldview where peoples’ lives are viewed as cosmic accidents rather than divinely orchestrated. Also, the characters act on their feelings more than anything else. The movie has two lesbian characters, underage drinking and marijuana use at parties. Due to its dismal view on life, strong foul language, homosexual references, and gratuitous immoral content, CHEMICAL HEARTS is an unacceptable, excessive movie.

Content:

(RoRo, PaPa, EvEv, B, HoHo, PC, C, LLL, V, S, N, AA, DDD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong Romantic, pagan worldview where teenagers romanticize what their lives could’ve been if it weren’t for certain events that occurred and dream about the future, and teenagers make their own decisions based on their feelings rather than morality, some evolutionary elements as characters place science in a higher regard than an all-knowing Creator and make comments like, “we’re just a collection of atoms” and believe people are just “ashes from dead stars,” with some light moral elements mainly due in part to a family taking in a teenager who’s not their own, and a married couple who loves one another and disciplines their son, plus strong homosexual elements as two teenage girls talk about hooking up with other girls and then eventually kiss and wind up dating. PC elements two characters dress up as President Donald Trump and FLOTUS Melania Trump for Halloween, only Trump is a female teenager and FLOTUS is a male teenager and a quick shot of a wall mural with the word “love” written and the L is in rainbow colors, and a Cross is seen at a gravesite, and there’s mentions of sins being washed away

Foul Language:

At least 22 obscenities (mainly “f” and “s” words) and four profanities (including one strong Jesus profanity)

Violence:

Mention of a teenager dying in a car wreck while driving and the passenger has lasting knee problems as a result, and mentions of having thoughts of suicide

Sex:

Implied teenage fornication (grunting sounds heard, but the pair are covered by the bedsheets), sensual dancing at a party, mention of a pornographic magazine that a teenager had but eventually tossed because he felt guilty, and two teenage girls talk about hooking up with other girls and then eventually kiss one another and wind up dating

Nudity:

Upper male nudity in a few scenes, and teenage girl appears in her undergarments

Alcohol Use:

Adults have wine with dinner, teenagers have two parties where underage drinking occurs, and a mention of beer pong

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Teenagers smoke marijuana and get high at a party and a mention of LSD; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Characters trespass on private property.

More Detail:

In the Amazon Original movie CHEMICAL HEARTS, a high school senior named Henry Page meets a cynical new girl at school who walks with a cane named Grace Town. When Henry misses his bus one day, Grace drives him home and slowly but surely, a friendship begins. The two become romantically involved with one another as they work on their school newspaper.

From Henry’s point-of-view, Grace has an emotional depth about life he’d like to explore. Henry begins to peel back Grace’s emotional layers and learns that some of her elusive behavior and outlook on life is because of a tragic car accident she was in with her boyfriend, who died on impact.

On the outside, Henry seems to have it all – great friends, a large house, loving married parents, and a sister who’s been successful in the medical field. However, Henry, like so many other high school seniors, including Grace, feels like he’s in an emotional limbo due to his brain’s maturity. This “limbo” idea becomes the theme for the school’s newspaper as graduation draws near.

Once Grace and Henry start dating, things are smooth sailing until the one-year anniversary of Grace’s late boyfriend’s death. The horrors of that fatal night bring Grace to a challenging mental headspace that pushes her away from Henry and leaves him confused, since all he wants to do is be there for her despite her pain.

With graduation on the horizon and plenty of daunting life choices for both Grace and Henry to make about their futures, the two must decide where their loyalties and desires truly lay.

CHEMICAL HEARTS is an R-rated teen drama that could’ve easily been a PG-13 rating if it weren’t for its foul language, teenage substance abuse and other gratuitous immoral content. Lead actors Austin Abrams (THIS IS US) and Lili Reinhart (RIVERDALE) do a fair job in the roles opposite one another. However, the movie has been done over and over again. Movies like PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and THE SPECTACULAR NOW mirror CHEMICAL HEARTS. If you’ve seen one of these movies, you’ve seen them all.

CHEMICAL HEARTS has a mixed Romantic, pagan worldview where peoples’ lives are viewed as cosmic accidents rather than divinely orchestrated. Also, characters act on their feelings more than anything else. In addition, the movie has two lesbian characters, underage drinking and marijuana use at teenage parties. Due to its dismal view on life, conversations of violence, strong foul language, and other gratuitous content, CHEMICAL HEARTS an unacceptable, excessive piece of entertainment.