NIGHTSTREAM: My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To
nightstreamLuckily, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To isn’t defined by those poetic opening words, although they actually cement one of the largest themes of the movie straight off the bat: loneliness. That first remark is delivered by a homeless man who Dwight (Patrick Fugit – all grown up from Almost Famous) has picked up off the street, thanks to the allure of free fast food. Both men are visibly uncomfortable about being in a car together, but the overweighting fear of being alone nullifies that fear, somewhat.
Dwight is uncomfortable for more than one reason, however. He pulls up to his home and proceeds to beat the man in his front garden. Dwight lives at home with his two siblings – Jessie (Ingrid Sophie Schram revels in playing this unsettling character) and Thomas (Owen Campbell), the youngest of the three who is stricken with a disease that requires him to be fed blood. Lo and behold, it’s up to Dwight and Jessie to kidnap unsuspecting people and drain them of their blood to keep house-ridden Thomas alive.
The film begins at a point in Dwight’s life where he is questioning his position in the family and debating whether or not he can stay. He frequents a local prostitute and explains his plans of wanting to get away to see the beach for the first time in his life. A ‘wish you were here’ postcard of Miami keeps him company in a photo frame next to his bed. The difficult thing for Dwight is that it’s clear he does love Thomas, but the restrictions Thomas puts on him effectively stops Dwight from having his own life. The loneliness is becoming insufferable.
Ironically, Dwight isn’t the only member of the family experiencing this. Thomas himself has become sad and confused about the point of his own life. He is forced to sleep in the day and stay awake at night, so as to lessen any chance of human contact. On the off chance, he has woken up early and heard other children playing out in the streets beyond his home. He celebrates Christmas every three months, unaware of how alien this is to other people – this is only highlighted to him when he invites a local teen in to keep him company.
The results of these two men trying to combat their understandable loneliness end with tragic consequences. Both are punished for it and most of this seems to come from the matriarch of the trio, Jessie. Jessie is very family-driven, but also determined. She seems confined to the fact that her life – and Dwight’s – will consist of keeping Thomas alive, and any alteration to the fact is not welcome.
Jonathan Cuartas, in his directorial feature debut, knows exactly what he’s going for with My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To. It’s a tight feature that oozes drama, looks stunning and confronts genuine familial and moral struggles, albeit with a slight vampiric twist.