REVIEW: Lili Reinhart and Austin Abrams Lead “Chemical Hearts”

Have you ever wondered what happens in your body when you fall in love? What about when a relationship ends? Your body produces all kinds of chemicals when we fall in and out of love which is the focus on Amazon Prime Video’s new movie, Chemical Hearts.

Based on the book, Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland, high school senior, Henry Page (Austin Abrams) is ready to tackle his senior year. Henry is creative and has spent the last few years working at the school newspaper. He knows he is a lock to be the new editor and is stunned to learn he will have a co-editor, new student, Grace (Lili Reinhart).

Grace is a transfer from another high school, a loner, who wants nothing to do with anyone, let alone Henry and the school’s newspaper. Henry is, of course, intrigued by the new girl and starts to chip away at Grace’s icy exterior. He soon finds himself falling for the loner whose past may make it impossible for the two to ever be together.

Reinhart and Abrams lead the movie as Grace and Henry. The two do well with their individual characters, but there was little chemistry between them. This is definitely not a couple audiences will be rooting for to get together, which with Grace’s tragic past may be the point. Reinhart gives some pretty moving performances exhibiting Grace’s struggles, but other than that there was nothing that made you want to invest in the either character’s story.

I wanted to really like this movie, but I just couldn’t get into it. The story felt stale and unentertaining. The secondary characters felt like extras with one or two lines here and there. There was definitely a miss not filling out the friends in the film as they could have been explored to push the main story. La (Kara Young) and Cora’s (Coral Pena ) relationship had me invested from the beginning, so I wish more had been done with these characters. The two leads, Henry and Grace, aren’t engaging. Having never read the book, it’s possible they are flushed out more in it and it simply wasn’t able to be translated to the screen.

Henry’s family also pops in and out and it is never determined how they should fit or drive the store. There was one interesting part where Henry’s sister, Sadie (Sarah Jones) explains the chemicals created by the brain when we fall in love and suffer a break-up. However, even this moment felt like it was tossed in to only tie to the title of the flick.

If you do wish to watch this film, make sure you are in a really good mood. The film is not a joyous one and can leave you in a funk once it is over. Definitely not be the best movie to watch while you are stuck at home. Instead you can try out one of the more upbeat romances out right now.

Grade: D