Mark Reviews Movies: MY HEART CAN'T BEAT UNLESS YOU TELL IT TO

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 24, 2021

There's little avoiding that My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To is an allegory about caring for someone with a persistent and/or terminal illness. Even so, director Jonathan Cuartas, making his feature debut, allows this story to exist on its own terms and by its own, established rules.

The illness, contracted by or inflicted upon (The specifics are irrelevant) the youngest sibling in a family of three, is vampirism. He must drink blood or die, and his elder brother and sister aren't just providing the blood. They're also protecting the youngest sibling from the realities of his disease and the cost of it upon them.

The film works, then, not because it's an allegory, because of the seriousness with which it treats the material, or even because of the air of melancholy that permeates almost every moment of it. All of those qualities, especially the tone, add to the effect of this deliberately paced tale about a sickly vampire and his selflessly dedicated siblings. At its core, though, the screenplay, written by Cuartas, is bluntly honest about the dynamics of this family and the toll of this illness on them—whether one interprets it as something else or takes it at face value.

The mechanics of this story are mostly familiar within the scope of vampire lore. Thomas (Owen Campbell) is afflicted with the disease, and he's cared for by his older brother Dwight (Patrick Fugit) and sister Jessie (Ingrid Sophie Schram).

Dwight is tasked to hunt for forced blood donors. He lures homeless people into his truck, promising a stay at a shelter, and brings them back to the house, where he knocks them unconscious. The older siblings drain the body of blood and ensure the further survival of an unaware Thomas.

These characters exist in a trapped, sad state of hopelessness, from Thomas' lonely deterioration, to Jessie's hyper-focused need to save her brother, and to Dwight's increasing disgust with and desire to escape from his obligations. Some of the details, such as the older siblings having Christmas for Thomas every month or Dwight trying to make a friend out of one of his captives, are nakedly pitiable.

Cuartas' pacing and long-shot framing complement that feeling of seemingly endless imprisonment. The performances—especially from Fugit—treat My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To with the severe sincerity the filmmaking earns.

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