Taglines: Fall in love. Fall apart.
Chemical Hearts Movie Storyline. 17-year-old Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a romantic, but the kind of once-in-a-lifetime love he’s been hoping for just hasn’t happened yet. When he meets transfer student Grace Town on the first day of senior year, all that might be about to change. When Grace and Henry are chosen to co-edit the school paper, he is immediately drawn to the mysterious newcomer. As he learns the heartbreaking secret that has changed her life, he finds himself falling in love with her–or at least the person he thinks she is.
Chemical Hearts is a 2020 American romantic drama film written, produced, and directed by Richard Tanne, based on the novel Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland. It stars Austin Abrams, Lili Reinhart, Sarah Jones, Adhir Kalyan, Bruce Altman, Kara Young, Coral Peña, C.J. Hoff, Catherine Curtin, Jasmine Hope Bloch, Shannon Walsh and Maxmillian Robinson. It was released on August 21, 2020, by Amazon Studios.
About the Story
Teenager Henry Page considers himself a hopeless romantic but has never fallen in love. He aspires to be a writer and to be chosen as editor of his high school newspaper. The newspaper’s faculty advisor disappoints him by making him share the editor position with Grace Town, a new student in his class. Grace is physically handicapped—walking with a limp and using a cane. She is also sullen and surly and initially rejects Henry’s attempts to talk to her.
After missing his bus one day, Henry and Grace wind up walking home along the same route. Although estranged at first, she relents slightly and offers to drive him home once they reach her house. However, she refuses to drive and has him drive her car and leave it at his house. The next day, a mysterious middle-aged man retrieves her car without speaking to Henry.
As Grace begins to let Henry into her life, she shows him an abandoned factory with a pool containing koi fish. He falls in love with her despite her mixed signals and obvious indications that she is emotionally traumatized. He follows her one day and finds her at the grave of a man who, judging from the tombstone, died as a teenager. Upon further investigation, he learns that the dead man was killed in a car accident and that Grace had been in the car when it happened—causing her disability and leading to her changing schools.
Their romance peaks at a Halloween party, after which they have sex (and Henry loses his virginity). They have a romantic few days together, but Grace is still troubled. On the anniversary of the car accident, Henry goes to her house and learns that she has been living in the room of her deceased boyfriend, with his mother and father (the man who had picked up her car earlier). She finds Henry there and they argue as she is clearly still in love with a dead man. Henry cannot handle this information and they break up.
Directed by: Richard Tanne
Starring: Austin Abrams, Lili Reinhart, Sarah Jones, Adhir Kalyan, Bruce Altman, Kara Young, Coral Peña, C.J. Hoff, Catherine Curtin, Jasmine Hope Bloch, Shannon Walsh, Maxmillian Robinson
Screenplay by: Richard Tanne
Production Design by: Lucio Seixas
Cinematography by: Albert Salas
Film Editing by: JC Bond
Costume Design by: Vanessa Porter
Set Decoration by: Rachel Barker
Art Direction by: Zebah Pinkham
Music by: Stephen James Taylor
MPAA Rating: R for language, sexuality and teen drug use.
Distributed by: Amazon Studios
Release Date: August 21, 2020 (United States)
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