Young love is hard, especially when the person you’re in love with is still in love with someone else. Amazon Prime’s new movie, Chemical Hearts, follows Henry Page. A senior in high school, passionate writer, and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. Henry noted his life hasn’t amounted to anything extraordinary...yet. Then he meets Grace Town, a transfer and assistant editor on the newspaper. Grace was in a terrible car accident the year before, resulting in an injured knee and a fear of driving. Henry is immediately taken by her and offers to drive her car to drop himself off at home with her in tow (a little complicated, but cute nonetheless). Their relationship develops and so does the mystery of Grace’s past. Henry notices as they grow closer her secrets are keeping them farther apart.
Starring Euphoria’s Austin Abrams as Henry and Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart as Grace, this movie gives you something most teen romance stories don’t. Realism. The movie captured a tumultuous relationship between two teens and between oneself and their mental health. The film never felt patronizing to the teenage experience or even over exaggerating, it felt right.
Austin Abrams brings an endearing, shyness to the role. Lili Reinhart plays Grace with a lot of levels, you see the journey that her character takes throughout the movie and it is played with strong emotion. And together Abrams and Reinhart give you the feels and hope you were looking for out of a romance movie.
A film like Chemical Hearts is important, the mental health journey that is displayed is crucial for people to see. I feel that there are not many romance movies that take such a hands on approach to talking about a character’s mental health. This movie created a story where you can see the pain, relate to it, and see their growth.
You can stream Chemical Hearts now on Amazon Prime.
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