“Sweetheart” - Film Review
Writer/director Marley Morrison’s feature debut, Sweetheart, is a sweet summer romance and coming-of-age film. It’s unique because its main character, AJ (Nell Barlow), is gay, but the movie isn’t focused on her coming out. When the movie begins, AJ is confidently out as a lesbian and it’s a nonissue for her mother Tina (Jo Hartley), her older sister Lucy (Sophia Di Martino), Lucy’s boyfriend, Steve (Samuel Anderson), and her younger sister, Dana. This familial group is vacationing at a coastal trailer park to celebrate Dana’s ninth birthday.
AJ is seventeen and feels distant from the rest of her family. Everyone except Steve and Dana has an opinion about AJ’s attitude, clothes, and life plans. AJ is at the age where she feels like no one understands her. As much as she cares about the world environmentally and politically, she acts like she’s the center of the universe. It’s not something that feels like a conscious choice on her part; it’s just the way everyone feels at seventeen. Every teen knows that their feelings and emotions are so deep and overwhelming that no one can possibly understand.
It should come as no surprise that AJ is not thrilled to be cooped up with her family for a week in a trailer park with no WiFi. The only saving grace is one of the lifeguards, Isla (Ella-Rae Smith). AJ is immediately smitten and develops the sort of all-consuming crush that only happens when you’re a teenager. Isla is all AJ can possibly think about, but she’s consumed by fear and indecision as her one-week vacation flies by.
Peccadillo Films
Sweetheart is nothing new in the sense that there are a million and one coming-of-age movies that have the same tropes. The same themes of blazing youthful confidence mixed with the anxiety of being a teenager can be found in many other films. AJ is certainly not the first teenager on film to feel misunderstood and crush on the cute lifeguard while on vacation, but it’s going to feel that way for a lot of people.
What makes Sweetheart so lovely is who is at the center of this film. AJ is a young lesbian who is dealing with all of the same anxieties about romance, family relationships, and the ever-looming future as her heterosexual teen movie peers. The film succinctly details the experience of growing up gay and manages to encapsulate the awkwardness of being seventeen and having a crush on someone. “I’ve never wanted to drown so badly in my entire life,” AJ says while hanging out with Isla. Having a crush at seventeen makes you stupid and willing to drown, just so you can be around a cute girl for a little while longer.
Sweetheart is like summertime. It’s easy to love and fleeting, yet somehow eternal. Even though the film takes place in the present day, it has a timeless quality to it. That feeling comes in part because of the outdated holiday trailer park setting, but also because of the feelings that are on display. Whether the audience is full of seventeen-year-olds or people in their seventies, there’s something magical about Sweetheart that makes it linger. Like a warm breeze on a sandy beach.
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