Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jonathan Cuartas
Starring: Patrick Fugit, Ingrid Sophie Schram, Owen Campbell
A child actor can be something of a vampire, so associated with their
youthful work that audiences refuse to allow them to age.
Patrick Fugit has been working consistently over the past two
decades, yet he's still commonly referred to as "the kid from
Almost Famous". No wonder he might be attracted to starring in and producing a movie
concerning vampirism – writer/director Jonathan Cuartas's
My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To.
Fugit doesn't play a vampire here, but rather a vampire's brother. The
bloodsucker is Thomas (Owen Campbell, who speaking of child actors,
looks an awful lot like a member of the Culkin clan), a teenager whose
condition means he's forced to remain in his home with the widows blacked
out. Looking after Thomas are his older siblings Dwight (Fugit) and Jessie
(Ingrid Sophie Schram). To ensure a steady supply of blood, Dwight
entices homeless people into his car, drives them home in the middle of
the night and knocks them out cold before draining the plasma from their
veins.
At the point we enter the story it's unclear how long Dwight, Sophie and
Thomas have been living like this. Many questions are raised in the
viewer's mind. Was Thomas born like this or did he succumb to some other
vamp's fangs? How aware is Thomas of the human cost of keeping him alive?
How are Dwight and Jessie keeping Thomas a secret from the authorities?
How are they killing a homeless person every couple of nights without
somebody somewhere growing suspicious?
Your level of frustration at Cuartas's reluctance to answer such niggling
queries will likely impact how engaged you can become with his film. Best
to dispel any awkward questions from the off, as this is a mood piece,
more concerned with generating a doom-laden atmosphere than in spelling
out the mechanics of how its protagonists exist (The recent gritty vampire
tale
Rose: A Love Story
is more satisfying in that regard).
Despite their dark secret, Dwight and Jessie live otherwise mundane lives.
Watching them eating their dinner on the couch while glued to the TV, I
was reminded of similar scenes in John McNaughton's
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. They've become so accustomed to killing that it no longer turns them
off their food. Dwight, however, is beginning to have an attack of
conscience. He's fallen in love with a hooker who operates out of a local
motel, and fears that Jessie may insist on making the woman their latest
victim. He's also beginning to realise that his domineering sister may not
have their brother's best interests at heart. Is keeping Thomas alive in
this half-existence really what's best, especially given the human cost?
In Dwight and Jessie we see something of a traditional father/mother
dynamic where Thomas is concerned. Dwight wants to cut Thomas some slack
and be seen as his friend while Jessie has a steely determination to keep
her kid brother alive at any cost, even if it's barely an existence.
Cuartas does such an effective job of embedding us in the nocturnal world
of this family that when we finally see daylight – as Thomas tries to
throw a paper airplane message to a passing group of teens – it's as
striking as that moment at the end of
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre when Marilyn Burns jumps out a
window into an unexpected morning. Cuartas gets us into the conflicting
psyches of Dwight and Jessie, but it's somewhat frustrating that the film
treats Thomas in a similar fashion to his older siblings – he may be the
centre of the story but he's largely sidelined. But fans of kitchen sick
vampire movies like Martin, The Addiction and the aforementioned
Rose: A Love Story will find much to satisfy in this story
of sangre slurping in the suburbs.
My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To is on Shudder UK now.
