Henry Page, played by Austin Adams, is a seemingly ordinary teenage writer who has never experienced romance in the Amazon Prime original movie Chemical Hearts. His wish at the very beginning of the movie is to become editor of the school newspaper.
One day, his life changes forever. Grace Town, played by Lilli Reinhart, moves to Henry’s school and becomes editor of the school paper alongside Henry. It doesn’t take long for Henry to fall in love with her. He pushes to spend more time with her, even though she initially wants nothing to do with him. Their bond forms over a poem Grace shares with Henry about love not being as cheesy everyone makes it out to be. Spoilers ahead!
As the two grow closer, Henry finds out that Grace had been involved in a horrible car crash with her boyfriend, Dominic, who died in the crash. Grace went from being very socially active to just wanting to be left alone.
Eventually, Henry and Grace develop a relationship of their own, allowing Henry to experience his first love. The relationship turns sour when Henry questions Grace about her family life. On the anniversary of Dominic’s death, Henry finds out that Grace lives at Dominic’s house, sleeps in his room and wears his clothes. This results in a fight, and Grace takes time off from school.
Henry works on healing from his first heartbreak by pouring his heart and soul into the final edition of his high school newspaper. The theme of the paper is “teenage limbo,” a concept coined by Grace about how being a teenager is the most difficult part of life as you struggle to make it from being a kid to an adult.
When Grace and Henry see each other again, you can tell that neither of them are anywhere near completely healed, but that both of them have come far from where they were before. Grace thanks Henry for all that he has done to help her in this chapter of her life and they both move onto their next chapter without each other.
Chemical Hearts is a beautiful attestation to the struggle of being a teenager. When you are a teenager, you get to experience romantic love for the first time and learn that it is much more confusing and awkward than the love you see in movies or books.
You experience heartbreak for the first time after thinking you would be with this person forever. It feels like the end of the world, but you heal and start over again with someone else. You may experience the loss of a loved one and try to comprehend how the Earth will continue spinning without them. All the while, you are suffering from raging hormones and super high expectations from adults and society without a lot of direction.
Probably the most important theme in this movie is that you shouldn’t view your scars as reminders of how you have been broken. Instead, you should view them as proof of how you became the person you are today. Without scars, we never stop being children. Without learning how to heal, we can never become adults.