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Jeremiah is a child trying to grow up at the centre of an
emotional storm. Denied the usual stability of a normal family,
Jeremiah finds himself shunted between various foster parents,
his Christian fundamentalist grandparents and his self destructive
drug fuelled whore of a mother who drags him across the southern
states of America on a vagabond existence. Exposed to privation,
sexual and mental assault Jeremiah's own innocence is his
bulwark against the madness of his existence on his journey
to discover that the heart is deceitful above all things...
The
Heart is a Deceitful Thing above all Else is a film written,
directed and staring Asia Argento and represents an unflinching
expose of the seedier underbelly of American society. Based
on the original novel of the same name by J.T. Leroy, his
2001 autobiographical account was written at the tender age
of sixteen. The story has much in common with Dave Pelzer's
A Child Called It, if you think you had a bad childhood
you should read these books for perspective.
Daughter
of Italy's great horror director Dario Argento, creator of
the very excellent Suspiria, Asia Argento has done
more than enough to move from under her father's shadow. Recently
she has become a very much marketable actress staring in such
recent films a xXx and Land of the Dead, though
initially I personally became aware of her playing Charlotte
of Sauve in the excellent 1994 La Reine Margot.
The film utilises many different techniques to visually describe
the effect that Jeremiah's experiences have on him. The grandparent's
house is presented using a very brown palette of colours much
loved by makers of horror films. There are a lot of quick
cut staccato effects to highlight the impact of the various
forms of abuse that Jeremiah undergoes. Argento employs a
range of eclectic visual elements which brings a disjointed
quality to the movie, which mirrors the disjointed nature
of the original novel. The only thing that I felt didn't work
were the animated red birds. Maybe I missed something, but
it was never really clear what they were supposed to represent.
The animation of the birds felt more like something out of
Jason and the Argonauts than any contemporary work.
Although the film deals with a difficult subject, it does
so in such a way as to draw the audience into Jeremiah's experiences
allowing empathy rather than voyeurism to be the overriding
tone. The acting is uniformly superb, who knew that Marilyn
Manson could act, even though he was assigned to a predictably
creepy and pervy section of the film. Peter Fonda, as the
grandfather, looks, all the world, to be staring in a horror
movie and delivers an unnerving portrayal of the juxtaposition
of religious fundamentalist and sublimated violence. Popping
up for a cameo Winona Ryder plays a psychologist who is more
than a little nuts herself. Lastly, Argento, in the central
role of Sarah, pulls together a performance of believable
self-destruction, self-abuse and of a woman who is on her
own path to hell. The child actors which play Jeremiah, at
various parts of his life, imbue the part with sweet naiveté,
making you want to take the poor child out of the nightmare
that is his life.
In
the extras section interviews with both Asia and Leroy explore
both the making of the film and the original novel. A Tartan
trailer reel highlights three films Silver City, Sky
Blue and Guy X. Normally I wouldn't
comment on the contents of the trailer reel but all three
films look like they might be worth a once over. Just for
good luck Tartan has thrown in the original trailer.
The
film comes with a very generous selection of audio options.
As well as stereo and 5.1 surround there is a DTS 5.1 option
which sounded great on my setup. For the hard of hearing there
are English subtitles.
So
another good solid release from Tartan, which deserves to
find a place on the shelf of any true film lover.
Charles
Packer
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