Jack of the Red Hearts

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Janet Grillo directs. Hillary Spera behind the camera. Jim Mol cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 10 years ago.
• 2Directed by Janet Grillo, shot by Hillary Spera. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Editor Jim Mol shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 4AnnaSophia Robb and Famke Janssen and Scott Cohen carry the top of the cast.
• 5IMDB entry: tt3833520 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Hillary Spera

Editing

Jim Mol

Production design

Jimena Azula

Runtime

102 min · 1h 42m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

Jack of the Red Hearts (2016) ↗

Also by

Janet Grillo

• 
  Alien Intervention

  2023 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Fly Away

  2011 · ★ 4.9

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Jack of the Red Hearts

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-06-04
  ★ 9/10

  The best life lesson comes from our own experience. I recently reviewed a French film called 'Marie's Story', and that led me to check out another masterpiece 'The Miracle Worker'. I loved both the films which are based on the real story that sets around the same time, but in the different continents. This was inspired by those two, other than that there's no connection. In fact they have given a credit by mentioning the Hollywood version. Only a similar theme, but the plot revolves differently. Like it gives an insight of some misconception on the autism. It was actually about a 18 year old rebellious girl Jack, who meets a child with autism. After her young sister was taken away by the child service, she plans to fight back for her custody as they were promised to their mother that they would stay together. Now all she has to do is to find a job, but for her criminal record, she has only one way to get one and she pushes for it. So the story begins when the struggle for her sister guide for a new and unexpected life for both her and the family she meets. The major misunderstanding is it is not all about autism, it was only a part of the story. But the original tale is about a girl whose life transformation from the teenhood to the adulthood. You could say it is a kind of mix of coming-of-age and self-discovery. The phase of that life is very crucial, especially for those who had lost their parents and struggling to find their own place in the society. So the learning process comes from their own experience than anybody's guidance. In that perspective, it was a beautiful and a simple family drama that inspires us. It was not based on the real story, but a very close to one, that's how it leaves the expression on the audience. "Just felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest and served on a cracker." The girl who played the role of an autistic child was good, not fully impressed, but the effort was highly appreciable. As I said the story's focus was on AnnaSophia Robb, though Famke Janssen has given a decent performance too. Most of the human inventions were the accidents and so the most of the relationships. It is until they meet, the right person for each, then their life would be changed forever. Like perhaps Annie-Helen and Marie-Marguerite from the films I mentioned in the first paragraph. The human bond is very unique, but moving to the modern world's society, the rules have kept changing on treating the individuals because of the status of their life. So for the orphans, especially in the first world countries not easy to tackle such situation. This film highlights some of the issues, where and how the teenagers are getting lost. Love and care are what most essential for the children, that's what family is for and with that kind of support they will achieve good things in life. But not the same case for the orphans who're treated as some kind of robots and forced to do against their will. It is good for their future, but a messed up system and its officials behaving badly like handling a prisoner. That's how Jack looks at from the perspective of her own life, until she meets a family who seek her help and realises the life is not as complicated as it looks, but we've to opt a right path to travel which needs a great sacrifice on the way to accomplish. It is a very good message film. When one fails to realise, just let them to experience themselves until they come to realise. Sometimes it will be too late to begin again, but nothing is impossible. It is very sad that the film is undiscovered by many. It is no masterpiece, but the quest was very clear to depict the world from the teenager's perspective about how they look at the society, especially the system that laid eyes on them when no other eyes are looking after them. I Highly recommended it, especially for the drama fans and the family audience. Perhaps it might be one of the must see from the last year. 8/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Sundial Pictures

  US

Key crew

• EditorJim Mol
• CastingJennifer L. Smith
• ProducerJoey Carey
• ProducerLucy Mukerjee-Brown
• ProducerMorgan White
• MusicDanny Bensi
• CastingDeborah Aquila
• CastingTricia Wood
• CastingAllison Estrin
• Production DesignJimena Azula
• MusicSaunder Jurriaans
• CastingHenry Russell Bergstein
• ProducerStefan Nowicki
• Script SupervisorZairi Malcolm

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• autism
• con artist
• woman director
• mother son relationship
• mother daughter relationship
• brother sister relationship
• autistic

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2015-05-06PG· Bentonville Film Festival
• Premiere2015-11-06· Virginia Film Festival
• Theatrical (limited)2016-02-26PG

Also known as

International titles

• Jack dos Corações VermelhosBR