''Jack of the Red Hearts'' is an American film directed by

Janet Grillo Janet Grillo is an American filmmaker. Early life and education Grillo grew up in New Jersey and moved to New York City upon graduating college. She graduated magna cum laude with honors in theatre from Wesleyan University and later received ...

and centered on the issues of orphanage, family,

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

, exclusion and inclusion. The film premiered on May 6, 2015 at the

Bentonville Film Festival The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) is an American film festival held annually in Bentonville, Arkansas that focuses on diversity. Foundation Bentonville Film Festival was founded by actress Geena Davis and ARC Entertainment executive Trevor Dr ...

and released theatrically on February 26, 2016.

Plot

18-year-old Jack struggles to take care of her younger sister, Coke, as both are orphans. When Coke is taken into social assistance services, Jack is required to find a stable income in order to gain legal custody of her sister. After taking the resume of an actual therapist, Donna and assuming her identity, Jack is hired by Kay and Mark to care for their daughter, a young autistic girl named Glory, who is about Coke's age. While Jack finds her job challenging at first, she eventually improves and creates a positive connection with Glory. After the forgery is discovered by Robert (

Israel Broussard Isaiah Israel Broussard (; born August 22, 1994) is an American actor. He made his film debut in the comedy-drama '' Flipped'', and is known for his roles in the crime film ''The Bling Ring'' (2013), the drama ''Perfect High'' (2015), the thrille ...

), Jack realizes her wrongdoing. She helps the family and gets Glory admission to a school. She goes to meet her sister and tell her that she should stay in the foster home. The family then forgives her and promises to do anything they can for Jack. At the end of the movie, we can see Jack as she contemplates the sky the same way as Glory, while being driven in a police car.

Cast

AnnaSophia Robb AnnaSophia Robb (born December 8, 1993) is an American actress, model, and singer. She began as a child actress on television, making her leading debut as the titular role in '' Samantha: An American Girl Holiday'' (2004). She made her feature ...

as Jacqueline "Jack" Ferguson, an eighteen-year-old runaway *

Famke Janssen Famke Beumer Janssen (; born ) is a Dutch actress. She played Xenia Onatopp in ''GoldenEye'' (1995), Jean Grey / Phoenix in the ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2014), and Lenore Mills in the ''Taken'' film trilogy (2008–2014). In 2008, she ...

as Kay Adams, Robert and Glory's mother * Scott Cohen as Mark Adams, Robert and Glory's father *

as Robert Adams, Glory's seventeen-year-old brother and Jack's love interest *Taylor Richardson as Glory Adams, an eleven-year-old autistic girl *

Sophia Anne Caruso Sophia Anne Caruso (born July 11, 2001) is an American actress and singer best known for originating the role of Lydia Deetz in the Broadway musical ''Beetlejuice'', a role for which she won a Theatre World Award. She also portrays Sophie in ''T ...

as Bethany "Coke" Ferguson, Jack's eleven-year-old sister *Maria Rivera as Daisy, Jack's best friend *

John D'Leo John D'Leo (born July 8, 1995) is an American actor. He is known for his role in the 2013 film ''The Family (2013 film), The Family'', as well as the films ''Unbroken'' (2014), ''Cop Out (2010 film), Cop Out'' (2010), ''Brooklyn's Finest'' (201 ...

as Dudley, Robert's best friend *

Omar Maskati Omar Maskati is an American actor known for his roles in ''Better Call Saul'' and '' Unbelievable''. He recently starred in the movie ''Evil Eye'' and had main roles in the television series '' Good Sam'' and '' As We See It''. Personal life Mask ...

as Junior

Reception

''Jack of the Red Hearts'' has grossed a total worldwide of $31,126. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 5.9/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film won the jury award for best film at the first

in 2015, the Audience Award for the Best Narrative Feature, the Jury Award for the Best Feature Narrative and the Director Prize for Best Young Actress (for Taylor Richardson's performance as a severely autistic child) at

Woods Hole Film Festival The Woods Hole Film Festival was founded in 1991 by Judith Laster and Kate Davis. Since its foundation, the festival has grown from a one-day invitational event to an eight-day event with films submitted from around the world. The Festival is hel ...

2015, and The Chimaera Project Award at the

Catalina Film Festival The Catalina Film Festival is an annual event that takes place at the end of September on Catalina Island, situated in Los Angeles County within the city of Avalon, California. Founded by Festival Director on Truppa Catalina is known as "Hollywo ...

2015.

References

External links

* * 2015 films Films about autism Films about orphans 2015 drama films 2010s English-language films {{2010s-drama-film-stub