Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
A movie about a young woman cutting herself to feel something, or to escape from her own fake reality, might be not be fitting for average viewers. I always preferred Roger Ebert's truthful statement about cinema where the most depressing movie is usually a bad one. Surprisingly, for a gritty independent film, "To Write Love On Her Arms" is not a depressing movie and hardly an unremittingly bleak one. It is not exactly upbeat but it does have the spunky attitude of Kat Dennings to carry the movie on her shoulders and give it a piercing heart.
Based on the true story of Renee Yohe and the global movement her story spurred, Dennings tackles the Renee role, playing a woman who has two close, devoted friends, Jesse and Dylan (Juliana Harkavy and Mark Saul) who watch over her. Sometimes, Renee is sucked into the world of partying with people who do not have her best interests at heart. She ingests cocaine, ecstasy and imagines a creative world where a drug dealer is sprouting wings! She envisions wondrous sights and has pastoral visions and imagines high-school students dancing and singing along to her favorite songs - any and everything to demolish her inner demons. Renee is sometimes photographed as an princess with a glow to mask her darkness, and other times she is reclusive, hiding beneath her hoodie and her headphones in a cold, brutal harsh world.
"To Write Love on Her Arms" eventually segues into the rehab world where Renee has to struggle with ending her drug addictions and making the right choices. Can she lift herself up from her doldrums, from her inability to cope with what's gnawing at her? Remarkably, and thankfully, the movie never settles on a resolution nor is she willing to accept that her story should have initiated a movement. Jamie Tworkowski (played with a winsome beat by Chad Michael Murray) sees Renee as a dominant force that others can look up to. He writes a blog about her story and a movement is born. In a tricky and powerful scene, we see Renee's confusion after getting out of rehab and seeing Jamie again who now has a girlfriend - one surmises that she hoped for a romantic relationship with Jamie. The scene does not end the way we expect - Kat Dennings consistently keeps us on our toes and we hope she doesn't keep injuring herself when things don't go her way.
The film ably swings from dark tones to far darker recesses of Renee's fantasy world (she imagines cracks forming in her bedroom mirror) to a supposedly sunnier disposition, at least visually when Renee is shown in sun-drenched, rosier images. Dennings starts to look less inhibited and less willing to hide from herself but these are still baby steps. Swiftly directed by Nathan Frankowski, the film never sugarcoats rehab or addiction. When Renee can't work up the enthusiasm to read emails from those who have suffered like her, she is more willing to help another recovering addict, David (Rupert Friend), a stressed-out band manager who lets her stay in his loft provided she stays clean for five days prior to rehab entry. The heartbeat and soul of "To Write Love On Her Arms" is that a recovering addict with bipolar disorder has looked outward as well inward. Renee develops compassion and freedom and it isn't a free ride.
"To Write Love On Her Arms" occasionally preaches its message with religious underpinnings. Dennings makes it down-to-earth and real. It is a struggle for the movie, but definitely a struggle we can stand to hear about more often.
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