Palm Pictures presents Asia Argento’s film adaptation of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. This picture stars Asia Argento as Sarah, Jimmy Bennett as young Jeremiah, and Cole and Dylan Sprouse trade off as the older Jeremiah. The cast includes smaller roles for Peter Fonda, Marilyn Manson, Winona Ryder, and Michael Pitt. The film runs 98 minutes.
Jeremiah, taken at age 7 from a loving foster family that wanted to adopt him, is delivered by Social Services to his biological mother, Sarah. From this point forward, his life is one story of neglect and abuse after another as his mother drags him like a rag doll from one deadbeat lover to the next. The only break is a three-year time jump while Jeremiah lives with, and takes unknown abuse from, Sarah’s Christian Fundamentalist parents and the rest of the residents in their church-like home.
This picture uses sets and/or locations that clearly depict the life of those in poverty in America. While some of the actors’ performances may not be great, the editing gives strong examples of the power of the cut. Animated creatures and scenes used to symbolize the most extreme horrors experienced by Jeremiah are as crude as the people in his life. Argento uses strong visual styles in the portrayal of the drug-induced haze delivered to Jeremiah by his mother.
I knew little of this film and almost nothing of the source material when I viewed it. I don’t really care about the source material since this is a film review – not a review of the source material or the controversy surrounding it. I found The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things effective in portraying what the horrors of a childhood filled with neglect, abuse and poverty might be like. Often I found myself shifting in my seat and turning somewhat away from the brutality displayed. I often found myself groaning in disgust over the choices made by Sarah – choices that were self-centered and were neglectful or lead to more abuse. This is tough stuff and not for the faint of heart or those with a weak stomach.
That the original novel is complete fiction and not a chronicle of one’s life as it was originally marketed does not mean that similar horrors don’t take place. It only means that in reality, those who survive horrors like the ones depicted in this film don’t grow up to be best-selling authors.