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SWEETHEART

A YOUNG WOMAN IS TRAPPED ON AN ISLAND WITH A MONSTER



★★★☆☆ (Good for One Viewing)

Director: Justin Dillard

2019



Sweetheart shines thanks to Kiersey Clemons; any other unknown actor would have likely turned this movie into a throwaway production. While this is an excellent vehicle for her to show off her stuff, the movie isn’t as memorable due to the many lost opportunities in a script that should have gone through a better editing process. When you have such a paper-thin premise—”a woman is trapped on a deserted island with a monster”—you have the freedom to pile on fantasy and rich details, especially if moneybags Blumhouse is driving the ship, no pun intended.


Speaking of, the film starts with Jen (Clemons) washing up on a beach with her mortally wounded friend after their boat sinks. From small clues, we get the idea there are no other survivors or people on the island, which means we get to observe a castaway in crisis, a surefire way to get an audience to root for a character. One thing I think the writers did really well was letting us form an opinion of Jen before we knew who she really was. I loved being tricked into thinking one thing about her, only to be confronted with her past later.



SPOILERS The first nugget of unmined gold is her discovery in the forest, a satchel and cooler filled with items that prove another family was once stranded there. This eerie revelation should have led somewhere instead of nowhere. Without giving too much away, an old man or woman should have eventually come out of hiding to help, adding another emotional layer to a movie low on people to care about. For the same reason, the new arrivals should have been around longer so we could see them as more than cardboard cut-outs of Eli Roth assholes. Unlike Jen, these people are terribly written, and their only purpose is to gaslight our heroine. When pasty characters are condescending to the point of being nonsensical, they’re just parodies of white privilege. Too much wokeness can tank a scene, especially when it feels like it’s meant to be an advertisement.


Before Jen has company, she has bigger problems. She finds out she’s not alone after something digs up her friend’s grave and carries the bloody body into the sea. Is it man or beast or both? Sweetheart does a good job moving the days quickly as she comes up with various plans to survive the night. Clemens acts her heart out, giving us the full spectrum of shock and grief while trying to eat and not be eaten. Too bad the interesting entity she’s hiding from doesn’t have a backstory (another reason I would have brought in the old man or woman) but 20/20 vision is easy after the final cut. I just feel like this movie could have been so much more. SPOILERS END


There is one notable shot (the flare gun scene) that is so haunting and horrifying, the image is burned into my mind, but it’s telling that I can only recall one great shot in the whole film. Another novice mistake is leaving plot holes and unanswered questions under the guise of viral fodder; I suspect the three writers were perhaps rushed and/or just didn’t know how to fill in the spaces. I’m an old broad, and that’s an old trick. Sweetheart is simply a hit and miss for me. You couldn’t have made me turn off the film, but I don’t usually play Monday morning quarterback with a script as much as I did when this ended. Perhaps all the men in charge of this “woman’s project” should have let it simmer in the water a little while longer.






GENRES: Diverse Characters, Feminist-Friendly, Monster/Creature, Teens in Peril


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