You Killed Your Momma, I'm All You Got Left.

Man, I keep thinking I'm kind of making headway, and then I remember a title I watched and forgot to make a note of in my list, and never wrote up, and find myself back at the beginning. Every time I get one ahead of myself, this happens. At this rate, I'll be twenty-odd films behind forever.


I watched The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things a loooong time ago. Really. I think it was around the same time as I watched The Brown Bunny, which would place it many months ago. So, I don't really remember thaat much about it.

It's a really cool title (taken, as it is, from the bible), which is probably why I have been drawn to it again and again over the years. Like books such as A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius and Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, or films like Me And You And Everyone We Know, the title has stuck in my head and always  made me want to watch it (or read it, whatever), which is probably the primary reason I picked it up.


Now, I remember very little of it, except that I didn't think it was a particularly great film. There were good elements, sure, some good moments and interesting themes, and quite a noteworthy cast when you include Jeremy Renner, Ben Foster, Michael Pitt, Peter Fonda and even Marilyn Manson in a role in which you would miss him if you didn't know he was in the film. Asia Argento directed herself from her own screenplay based on the shorts of JT LeRoy.


Because she wrote it and directed it, I feel that it's fair to say that I didn't really feel any sympathy for her character. Yes, it could be that the character was entirely unsympathetic, but I think you needed some sympathy for her in order to truly feel for her son, but you didn't. No sympathy for her, and I then struggled to consistently find sympathy for the kid either. He was far too passive. Yes, I know he was, like, six and eleven for the whole film, but still. 


I think that might be a big problem. The two primary characters were either unsympathetic or passive. And the film was entirely too dour for the duration. I actually think it picked up and gained some edge, became a little more interesting and dynamic, towards the end when Argento's character was withdrawing and going a little nuts, but then the film ended, and that was it.


Really, I'm clutching at straws here. I don't really remember that much about it. I'm sorry. I don't. I remember what I felt about it after, and what I felt was 2 stars. So there you go.