Dwight and his sister Jessie reach a crossroads over what to do with their younger brother Thomas, a sickly child with a mysterious affliction.
HORROR
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My Heart Can't Beat
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Would you do anything to take care of a sick relative? Would you work extra shifts or take a second job to cover expenses? Would you bathe them if they were too weak to do it themselves? Would murder strangers, drain them of their blood, and feed them because it’s the only thing that sustains them? What does that do to you over time and can you survive the guilt of coming to terms with letting go of a loved one?
These are questions I asked myself as I watched Jonathan Cuartas’ My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To, a film that takes these questions and weaves them into the story of Dwight (Fugit), his sister Jessie (Schram), and their younger brother Thomas (Campbell) who has a unique sickness. Cuartas wastes no time as he opens the film with Dwight picking up a homeless man under the pretense of taking him to a shelter. As they pull up to Dwight’s house, the man remarks, “This doesn’t look like a shelter.” and Dwight’s response is, “It used to be.” He brings the unconscious man inside where he and Jessie systematically go about draining the man of his blood. Jessie takes a bowl into Thomas’ room to feed him while Dwight buries the man out back. We are given the impression that this has been going on for a while as Dwight and Jessie wear the stress of this all over their faces. They essentially exist in their own world locked inside their home. Christmas is every month as the siblings exchange gifts in an attempts to gloss over the things they (Dwight and Jessie) are doing in order to care for Thomas. Dwight tries to confide in a sex worker (Preston) he’s been seeing, even conspiring to leave with her as the weight of everything is taking its toll. At times, Dwight and Jessie function more like husband and wife than brother and sister with Thomas as their sickly child. Thomas’ desire to have a life outside of the house and connect with the kids he hears every day ultimately puts everyone in danger, changing their lives forever. While very light on the vampire mythos (no wooden stakes or sexy bloodsuckers here) this film is more about the characters that are in a scenario we can all relate to, albeit one with a supernatural twist. My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To is a bleak look at what is taken out of us when we try to care for a loved one and lose ourselves in the process. It also says that it’s ok to let them go so we can continue to live. |