The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

So I went in with no expectations, I thought this was an indie film starring Asia Argento and here she might have an opportunity to shine away from her fathers shadow and creepy insistence on nudity.Immediately I was struck by her similarity to Lily Allen with blonde hair scarily so in fact. I was impressed by her performance but within 10 minutes felt this deep aching you get from films that just aren't nice to watch.90 minutes of the poor upbringing of a child into a horrific life filled with all the things a child simply shouldn't do/see/experience.Mixed in are a remarkable number of famous faces including Winona Ryder, Jeremy Sisto, Ben Foster, Marilyn Manson and in a scene that I'm surprised didn't kill his career Jeremy Renner (Deeply unpleasant stuff) Nasty open ended and almost modern day Shakespeare The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is something to watch to put things into perspective if you feel like your life sucks.Good performances but comparable with cystoscopy for both entertainment and comfort levels. And I mean that literally, I've experienced both and this movie is as fun as having a camera shoved up your urethra.

If there is any such thing as film royalty, then Asia Argento surely belongs in its ranks. Not the snobby, upper levels with the likes of Sophia Coppola or Nick Cassavetes, but the grittier, "cool kid" level. The offspring of Italian horror legend Dario Argento and some beautiful model, Asia Argento has just recently come into her own as acting and directing presence. She has been appearing in European television and low budget horror films for some time, but her turn in Romero's Land of the Dead and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things mark the beginning of what will most likely become her trademark style.With Heart, Argento splits her time between acting and directing. This is a tall order for anyone. The film is based on the work of JT LeRoy and is suppose to be a biographical account of his tortured and turbulent youth. In reality JT LeRoy is a concoction of a New England couple hoping that the gimmick of a sexually confused white trash novelist would propel them into wealth. It worked, for a while. From scenes of sexual abuse and maternal abandonment Argento conveys the sickly feel of the novels and manages to coax bewilderment out of her youngest actor, Jimmy Bennett as Jeremiah. While her direction is adequate she brings a Gummo like quality to the role of Jeremiah's reluctant mother Sarah. For someone who grew up in wealth, even wealth generated from Dario Argento's giallo fantasies, it must be hard to channel someone like Sarah. Her struggle is evident as Sarah seems more like a Jerry Springer guest than the real deal. Perhaps Argento had too much to deal with and her acting suffered. It doesn't ruin the film, but it isn't a strong performance by any standard.Argento has said that at the time of filming she did not know that JT LeRoy was a hoax. Looking back it's hard to imagine that people really did believe in this extreme version of a Maury episode that that was passed off as LeRoy's back-story. This unreal quality is present in the film. The abusive family, the magnitude of maternal apathy, it never connects. It feels like a child's fairy tale. Albeit a ferocious one. At times the film is seen completely through the eyes of Jeremiah. This brings to mind Terry Gilliam's recent film about a child coping with a nightmarish life, Tideland. In that film though, the fairy tale elements are exaggerated and given life. Argento allows no such escape for her tiny protagonist. He is trapped in the real world, and not his head like Gilliam's Jeliza- Rose.The film begins to fall apart with the introduction of Peter Fonda as the bible thumping grandpa monster. By this time Jimmy Bennett has been replaced with twins Dylan and Cole Spouse whose Disney Channel looks cannot be overcome. By the time Argento reappears it's too late, and movie drags through its last third without the emotional punch that it began with.The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things makes attempts to be a children's horror fable about lost youth, and the worst family imaginable. The weight of the JT LeRoy legend, child actors, and Argento's double duty, eventually become too much and by the middle the film is off the rails. By no means a disaster, Heart is a mediocre offering at best. There are glimpses of the passion Asia Argento put into the project, and some decent scenes that showcase her talent. This may not be the artistic statement its director was hoping for, but its evidence that it is only a matter of time before she produces such a work.

A long title taken from a verse in the Bible, and directed by and starring Asia Argento, this unhappy tale of a drug addicted mother, Sarah(Argento) and her son, Jeremiah, from age seven to eleven. Mom has series of relationships with abusive men, and she abandons her boy and travels to Atlantic City with Emerson, who she leaves to head back home. Emerson shows up and rapes the boy, who is taken to a hospital, where his grandmother takes him to West Virginia, to live with his grandfather who leads a Christian cult. Three years later super mom reappears to reclaim the kid. Her newest boyfriend, Ken, leaves them at a truck stop where Sarah turns tricks, and decides to dress her boy up as a girl in order to attract men; my God, what a family. Just when you thought it was not possible, it gets worse. Mommy and her cross dressing boy wind up in a house which is a meth lab, which is too much to resist for Sarah, and after an explosion kills her most recent boyfriend, she is convinced that any other then soda and chips are poison. They shoplift and Jeremiah scavenges a hamburger out of a dumpster, which mom thinks will do him in, and so she gives him ipecac to force vomiting. A hospital is the next stop for the kid, and the psych ward for his mother. If you can make it this far, you might as well hang in there for the ending, which as wacky as the rest of this insane drama. Watch at your own risk.

Rented this film out of curiosity towards Ms. Argento's film-making. While the film got off to a shaky start, it quickly evolved into a well-crafted and creatively interesting piece of film-making. While the subject matter of the story itself is upsetting to say the least, it is very well handled. Clearly Ms. Argento has a knack for weaving a compelling and meaningful tale. It will be interesting to see what stories she chooses to tell next and what kinds of characters she will choose to play in her upcoming projects. Overall, this film is worth watching, but make sure you are prepared for some heavy subject matter as it doesn't pull its punches!