Seeing a movie called
The Violent Heart, you might expect a 50s melodrama to be your awaiting pleasure, the type of time machine throwback romance with a title as profound as Lana Turner was glamorous. So it’s a jarring surprise to instead come across a new Kerem Sanga indie drama with such an understated, even melancholy star-crossed romance to offer, filtered with an unsolved mystery, a protagonist exuding stoic trauma, and a twist only the ripest of moviegoers will find surprising. On second thought, perhaps this really is a throwback.
15 years after witnessing the horrific murder of a family member at the young age of nine, Daniel (Jovan Adepo) finds himself adrift as an adult, constantly wrestling with the painful reality that the killer is still out there. He eventually crosses paths with Cassie (Grace Van Patten), a high school senior who admits she talks a bit too much, and as their friendship blossoms into something more, Cassie makes clear to Daniel (and the audience)