The Violent Heart

The Violent Heart is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Kerem Sanga. It stars Jovan Adepo, Grace Van Patten, Lukas Haas, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Cress Williams, Jahi Di'Allo Winston, and Mary J. Blige. The film premiered at the Deauville Film Festival on September 9, 2020, and was released on February 19, 2021 by Gravitas Ventures.

The Violent Heart
Official poster
Directed by	Kerem Sanga
Written by	Kerem Sanga
Produced by	Shawn Levy Dan Cohen Edward L. McDonnell Tobey Maguire Matthew Plouffe P. Jennifer Dana Mark Roberts
Starring	Jovan Adepo Grace Van Patten Lukas Haas Kimberly Williams-Paisley Cress Williams Jahi Di'Allo Winston Mary J. Blige
Cinematography	Ricardo Diaz
Edited by	Joshua Raymond Lee
Music by	John Swihart
Production companies	21 Laps Entertainment Material Pictures 3311 Productions Endeavor Content
Distributed by	Gravitas Ventures
Release dates	September 9, 2020 (2020-9-9) (Deauville) February 19, 2021 (2021-2-19) (United States)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$23,614[1]

Plot

Fifteen years after the mysterious murder of his older sister Wendy, Daniel is striving to become a mechanical engineer for the Marines. He witnessed the murder of his sister, and so struggles to live a normal life with the memories he has. Daniel meets Cassie, a witty and loquacious young girl, who attends a local high school, when she has to stop by the auto shop for an oil change at her dad's request. Leaving the car behind, she asks Daniel to take her to the high school that his brother attends. Cassie tells Daniel about her father and speaks highly of him, but she discovers that her father is having an affair with a teacher at the school. Because of this, Cassie becomes estranged from her family and spends more time with Daniel, and the two begin to realise they have connections from the past.

Cast

• Jovan Adepo as Daniel
• Grace Van Patten as Cassie
• Lukas Haas as Joseph
• Mary J. Blige as Nina
• Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Helen
• Jahi Di'Allo Winston as Aaron
• Cress Williams as Lee
• Rayven Symone Ferrell as Wendy

In addition, Jordan Preston Carter briefly appears as a young Daniel witnessing his sister's murder.

Production

Kerem Sanga directed the film based on a screenplay he wrote, and brought on Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Ed McDonnell and Tobey Maguire to serve as producers under their 21 Laps Entertainment, 3311 Productions and Material Pictures banners, respectively.^[2]

In December 2017, Grace Van Patten and Jovan Adepo were cast, and Mary J. Blige, Lukas Haas, Jahi Di'Allo Winston and Kimberly Williams-Paisley joined the cast in January 2019.^[3] In February 2019, Cress Williams also joined the cast.^[4]

Filming

Principal photography began in February 2019 in Nashville.^[5]

Release

The Violent Heart had its world premiere at the Deauville Film Festival on September 9, 2020.^[6][7] It was originally set to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, however, the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[8][9] In December 2020, Gravitas Ventures acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a February 19, 2021 release.^[10]

Reception

The Violent Heart holds a 56% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews, with an average of 5.6/10.^[11] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 49 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[12]