“I’m So Lonesome I Could Die:” A Review of TORN HEARTS
Leigh and Jordan have had it. They’re a rising country music duo who appear to have hit a plateau in their career as Torn Hearts. They juggle their own ambitions while fighting the pressure to become “robotic pop country princesses,” as they put it. Inspiration strikes Jordan, who convinces Leigh to visit the mansion of Harper Dutch (Katey Sagal), a reclusive, once-popular country singer who lives like a stylish Miss Haversham. If they can convince her to record a song with them, it could be their ticket away from mid-level bars and their predatory manager. Sounds like a simple story of female empowerment, right? Oh wait, this is a Blumhouse movie.
Katey Sagal isn’t known for horror, but she holds her own playing a complicated woman with dangerous secrets. Here, she carries the plot on her back until the final reveal. Harper and her deceased sister/partner act as a dark mirror of the neophyte duo, and Sagal plays her like she’s gazing deep into an abyss the girls can’t see for themselves. Plus, she gets to sing. There’s a scene late in the film where the trio record an acapella song that’s equal parts touching and creepy. Abby Quinn and Alexxis Lemire play the duo (Jordan and Leigh, respectively) with a mix of hope and reluctance that makes you believe they would stay in an insane situation.
L-R: Jordan (Abby Quinn) and Leigh (Alexxis Lemire), the “Torn Hearts” in question.
Written by Rachel Koller Croft and directed by Brea Grant, “Torn Hearts” feels like it could be set in any musical subgenre and still be about the dark side of ambition. Craft’s script doesn’t really say anything new, but uses its (mostly) single location to explore similar themes. This makes it feel a little long in spots, but it mostly works as a chamber piece.
Grant’s last film as a director was “12 Hour Shift,” a dark comedy about an overworked, under-appreciated woman who gets in over her head. “Torn Hearts” is another examination of fed-up women on a more intimate scale. There’s another version of the film where Harper is more overtly sinister, the girls are dumber, and the gore is plentiful, but Croft and Grant know how to modulate this story for tension instead of shocks. It’s not a dark comedy, but the coda is delightfully ghoulish.
“I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man.”
If you put “Cheap Thrills” in a blender with an episode of “Tales from the Crypt,” and a smidgen of “Friday the 13th part 2,” you get “Torn Hearts,” a twisted cautionary tale. Also, who do I talk to about getting Clarke Wolfe to cameo in everything?
“Torn Hearts” is on Digital May 20, 2022.
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