Delayed Reaction: Sweetheart

Premise: A woman washes up on a deserted small island and discovers that she's not as alone as she thought.

 

I'm not a huge fan of monster movies, but it's hard to dislike the economy the storytelling in a movie like Sweetheart. It starts with Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) washing up on the island. I don't know what happened. I don't really need to know. All I know about her for most of the movie is how she's responding in this specific situation. In fact, when her boyfriend and friend do eventually show up, I got annoyed by the attempt to shoehorn in personality details about her. Apparently, she lied about getting mugged before this ill-fated trip. So what? That's a useless detail. Even if she was the most honest person ever, I think it's fair to have her friends doubt her claim that there's a monster living in a hole on the ocean floor by the island. Finally, when the movie ends, there's no unnecessary resolution. She kills the monster, which is cool, but she's still on the island. All the smoke makes it likely that she'll be found, but I don't actually care. I got what I needed to conclude this story. Seriously, I love how self-contained this is.

 

It surprised me just how well Keirsey Clemons held my attention throughout the movie. It's difficult to be that wordless and carry a movie. I got a sense of her personality despite the silence and unrelatability of her situation. I've liked her going back to Transparent, and she is a younger performer who I'm curious to see develop. Her filmography is all over the place. She can do comedy. She can do indie movies. How far away is she from being scooped up for a franchise? * Or will she be hopping to prestige movies next? Or both. I guess I could pick at the likelihood of her character knowing how to set a trap that's so elaborate at the end after only a week, but the sequence was entertaining enough that I didn't really care.

 

*I know she's in the Snyderverse, but is a Flash movie actually going to happen? And is that going to be a "real" role?

 

Additional props to the movie for showing the monster. I really thought they were going to hide it for a big reveal at the end. You know, make the audience think there's a chance she's imagining it. No, pretty quickly they show the monster. And it looks OK for what I'm assuming was a pretty cheap movie. Sweetheart didn't blow me away, but it's an effective take on the desert island movie. Despite the limited locations and characters, I never felt like the movie was too small to justify its runtime, which is a big accomplishment for Sundance movies.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend