The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
by Asia Argento
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DVD details
Actor: Asia Argento, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Jimmy Bennett, Kara KempDirector: Asia Argento
Brand: Uni
Writer: Asia Argento
Producer: Al Hayes
Producer: Alain de la Mata
Producer: Ara Katz
Producer: Brian Young
Writer: Alessandro Magania
Writer: Laura Albert
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Palm Pictures (Home Entertainment)
Product features:
- Based on the novel by the mysterious and controversial JT LeRoy, Asia Argento's THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS is a penetrating look at the emotional and physical bonds between mother and son. Argento, the daughter of Italian horror king Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA), directed and stars in the film, playing Sarah, a young woman addicted to sex, drugs, and danger. The movie opens as she ree
DVD Reviews of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
DVD Review: Which is worse: Drug-addicted mom? Pedophiliac father? Abusive religious grandparents? Orphaning? Self-reliance, age 10?
Summary: 5 Stars
Note to consumers: The original release of this DVD contains an authoring error, resulting in an abrupt jump that bypasses the "explosion" scene (which can be seen in the previews). Palm Pictures has been very responsive to email requests for replacement versions of the DVD, and if you purchased a defective item, you should contact them via their web site.
J.T. Leroy's "true" life tale about a teenaged truck stop prostitute and her son was first told in a collection of short stories by the same name. The movie follows the early years of Jeremiah, a boy who experiences child rape, has gender confusion, lives as a scavenger, is brainwashed by evangelical Christians, and experiences a revolving door of his mother's boyfriends and tricks. The big screen version follows the written version closely; however, I highly recommend that viewers also pick up a copy of the book (and Leroy's earlier work Sarah) to answer any questions about the backstory, the red bird metaphor, the story of Sarah's own youth, the inner strength of Jeremiah, and more.
Director/Actor Asia Argento is brilliant, pure and simple. She portays child rape and the harrowing seduction of a grown man (Marilyn Manson) by a teenaged boy in drag with artistic genius. Viewers don't need to see the "monster" in full light, and their imagination of the rest of the scene is far more disturbing. As an actor, she portrays Sarah as a chameleon who shifts from a drop-dead looker to a trashy stripper to a drug-addicted junkie to a loving mother to a hateful creep in mere minutes (and then shifts back again). She is both drop-dead gorgeous and completely hideous. Three young actors portray Jeremiah as a stoic boy who grows up in this chaotic environment, and all of them are excellent.
Some reviewers find this movie depressing, and I couldn't disagree more. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This movie is what you make of it. Viewers can easily find a commentary of the child welfare system, insight into the results of a repressed childhood, social commentary on hypocrisy, and insight into the scarring effects of child abuse if they scratch beneath the surface. It's no pick-me-up, but this is in no way the most horrific film I've ever seen (try Baise Moi or Irreversible for that). It's also not an exploitation film by any means. It is brutally honest about events and situations which go on every day in America.
Is the story a hoax? Once again, the authenticity of the movie is open to interpretation. J.T. Leroy has been exposed as the pen name for a woman who was never a truck-stop prostitute, which recasts the short story collection as a work of fiction instead of non-fiction. Literary magazines and critics have engaged in a never-ending debate about the hoax (especially in the light of the James Frey controversy). The primary criticism is that the story loses its authenticity--how can the reader/viewer trust the insight to such sensitive topics if the author never experienced them? For a play-by-play of the backlash and controversy about Leroy's identity, refer to the Wikipedia article on the subject.
The Palm Pictures promotional web site has embraced the controversy in a fun way, which is how I encourage consumers to view it. Yes, the story is larger-than-life. On the other hand, it is far from the outrageous film every made. I truly believe that the statement made by the film is a strong one that is undiluted by the author's credibility with personal experience. (Hoaxes like Go Ask Alice, with its socio-political agenda, are far more dangerous than this story.)
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Watch this movie with an open mind and look beneath the surface. Develop your own opinions about the news that the story is actually a work of fiction.
Description of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Seven-year-old Jeremiah lived a calm, comfortable life in the care of a loving foster home until the day his young mother Sarah (Argento) came to take him against his will into her reckless life of turmoil and depravity, between desolate truck-stops, flea bag motels, strip joints, drug den and deadbeat surrogate dads until he finds himself in the custody of his ultra-religious grandparents. Having adapted to his new life as a Christian fundamentalist, Sarah returns to claim her son. Bound by a love only a mother and son could have for each other, Sarah pulls Jeremiah further and further into her dementia. When Sarah is finally and wholly consumed by drugs, prostitution and violence, Jeremiah is forced into a desperate struggle to survive the madness of his surroundings.Asia Argento's adaptation of JT Leroy's short story collection, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, still has the heartbreaking urgency of a tale about child abuse, regardless of Leroy's proven fraudulent identity. Weaving plots together from Leroy's two books, Sarah, and The Heart Is Deceitful, Argento relays the history of orphaned Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett/Cole Sprouse), whose mother Sarah (Asia Argento) abandons him as a baby to work as a truck-stop lot lizard for her methamphetamine habit. Sarah tears Jeremiah away from a stable foster home to pathetically attempt mothering her seven-year old son. Jeremiah instantly grows up in strip clubs, drug dealers' homes, big rigs, and in the hot rod that he and his mother call home. His sadomasochistic sexual psychology also develops prematurely, informed by men who rape and beat him, and a mother whose work as a hooker requires Jeremiah's dressing up as a girl to pass as her younger sister. Enter a born again, psychotically zealous Grandfather (Peter Fonda) who takes temporary custody of Jeremiah, and the viewer begins to understand Sarah's severe rebelliousness, sensing that the punk, 23-year old prostitute may be a better parent for Jeremiah, simply because she loves him. Shot by Eric Alan Edwards (Kids, My Own Private Idaho), and with a soundtrack including Sonic Youth, Subhumans, Billy Corgan, and Hasil Adkins, the film has a raunchy, Southern appeal similar to that of Leroy's books. Cameos appearances by Winona Ryder and Marilyn Manson add rock star power. Argento keeps it sexy, as this is as much a story of the mother-child bond as it is about the malformation of a boy's sexual identity. True or not, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is a sincere yet stylized rendition of a terribly sad story. --Trinie Dalton
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