Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kiersey Clemons, Emory Cohen, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Andrew Crawford, Benedict Samuel.

The castaway is no stranger to cinema audience, it is how the underlying tension of loneliness and survival is portrayed is where the film can live or die on its knees, and occasionally be seen as one of the fundamental films of its type which resonates deeply with all who see it.

The story of the castaway may not be a stranger to the elements and thoughts of all who have wondered the natural fear and anxiety they might encounter in such a scenario, but add in the knowledge that you are not alone, that there is something that hunts in the dark, then there are fewer points of reference in which to take comfort from, fewer places to hide. 

Not only does the film’s title misdirect the fan, but the sequences also involved as the story progresses have perhaps more in common with a scaled back version of The Island of Doctor Moreau  or The Creature From The Black Lagoon than they do with the Tom Hanks film Castaway; indeed Sweetheart could be seen as a tale of misplaced exile from our own humanity and the rejection of nature than an inside look at the psyche of the individual lost with no hope of salvation.

Despite the underlying issue at hand, the film, written and directed by J.D. Dillard, alongside Alex Hyner and Alex Theurer, does capture the imagination with a modicum of great effect, and whilst even in a film that manages to keep the cast list to the barest minimum, it can feel crowded,  slightly congested, there is the danger of the unknown, both on the island and from the depth of the surrounding sea, which manages to give the watcher the feeling of intense agoraphobia which is as unsettling as the fear of what lays beyond.

Where the film is lifted it is because of the presence of Kiersey Clemons as the survivor Jenn, and it is her showing of fear which gives the film the edge it requires to stand out rather than blend in, one that could have been a distinct possibility.

Sweetheart sounds benign, but under the beauty and idealism of being stranded upon a desert island, lurks a deep fear which pushes the soul and the mind to a darker, and more terrifying place.

Ian D. Hall