Synopsis
Fifteen years after the murder of his older sister, taciturn Daniel finds himself falling for Cassie, a vivacious high school senior in this southern gothic-inspired Romeo & Juliet story set in the American heartland.
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Cast
- Grace Van PattenCassie
- Jovan AdepoDaniel
- Lukas HaasJoseph
- Mary J. BligeNina
- Kimberly Williams-PaisleyHelen
- Jahi Di'Allo WinstonAaron
- Cress WilliamsLee
- Rayven Symone FerrellWendy
- Jordan Preston CarterYoung Daniel
- Allison ShrumEnglish Student
Recommendations
- 75
IndieWire
If this one still bites off more than it can chew, its ambition nevertheless reaffirms Sanga as a skilled and emotionally sensitive filmmaker who’s attuned to the low-frequency wavelengths that tend to get flattened out by stories with this kind of sweep. - 63
Movie Nation
The final act of a thriller is where the payoff lies. We’ve invested in the characters and relationships. We fear for them, and as we do, the suspense should build to the point where it weighs on you. The Violent Heart has that weight about it right from the start. And if the climax seems wanting, perhaps one twist too many, it still doesn’t spoil the mystery we see unfold and the solutions we have time to consider over its 100 or so minutes. - 60
The New York Times
Some of these central relationships are inappropriate, even dangerous, but the subtlety of Sanga’s filmmaking allows for big twists to come as a genuine surprise. It makes for a successful manipulation of his audience’s expectations, even if the overall effect is a movie that feels slightly detached. - 58
Original-Cin
The Violent Heart lies somewhere between a chasm that divides soft-peddled melodrama and Young Adult fiction. It's unlikely director/writer Kerem Sanga intended the story to be categorized as either melodramatic or Young Adult. - 50
Los Angeles Times
There’s a lot to like in The Violent Heart, with Adepo at the top of the list. But Sanga errs by giving his movie the deterministic structure of a potboiler and the muted tone of a slice-of-life indie drama. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
There is plenty to admire technically in his drama . . . But its substance is a mashup of ill-fitting parts, indebted to both Romeo and Juliet and Douglas Sirk. - 50
RogerEbert.com
A promising but self-thwarting movie like this is more depressing than an outright bad or dumb film. - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
Going into The Violent Heart, you must understand that the ending is insanely ridiculous. This is not to say that it’s not entertaining — in a way, it’s even more entertaining for being insanely ridiculous. But by the end, you will in no way be able to regard The Violent Heart as anything resembling a serious movie.
