The heart is deceitful above all things

  Info: "The heart is deceitful above all things" is a movie based on a "true" story by JT Leroy. Turns out that JT Leroy never existed and was a hoax. The story bases on a young boy and his prostitute/ druggy mother. The boy, Jeremiah, is dragged along the states, enduring misadventures with his mom, Sarah. Jeremiah is abused and neglected by each man that Sarah goes out with, along with Sarah herself. The book itself is beautifully written, but sadly the movie didnt get much recognition. The movie, directed and played in by Asia Argento, even though it may not be organized great, still sends out a strong message that kids, just like poor little Jeremiah, are going through this stuff daily. So to all the Jeremiahs out there, we wish you only for the best.

Synopsis: The film revolves around a tattered relationship between Sarah (Asia Argento), a drug addict, and her son, Jeremiah (played by Jimmy Bennett at age seven, and by Cole and Dylan Sprouse at age 11). Their life together is marked by drug-taking and heavy drinking. Sarah repeatedly becomes involved with a series of men who treat her and Jeremiah poorly, and uses them as an excuse to abandon her son. She disappears to Atlantic city with her current boyfriend, Emerson (Jeremy Renner), whom she then abandons; Emerson returns to their home and rapes Jeremiah. After a trip to the hospital, Jeremiah's grandmother takes him to a West Virginian radical Christian cult led by his grandfather (Peter Fonda). After three years with the cult, Sarah returns to reclaim a now 11-year-old Jeremiah. Sarah's current lover, Kenny, a truck driver, eventually abandons them at a truck stop while Sarah is soliciting herself. Sarah realizes that if she is going to keep her men, then she cannot say Jeremiah is her son. Jeremiah allows his mother to persuade him into cross dressing so he can act as her 'little sister', and Jeremiah's cross dressing evolves to include his mother's seduction techniques. After dressing up as a 'baby doll' version of Sarah, Jeremiah/Sarah seduces Jackson (Marilyn Manson), his mother's latest man, who initially tries to rebuff the boy's advances, but then he gives in. Furious with Jackson for giving in to the boy's advances and with Jeremiah for ruining her panties, she takes Jeremiah and leaves.

Later, they are seen in a house where the basement houses a meth lab which later blows up with Sarah's latest boyfriend inside. After fleeing, and while detoxing from meth, Sarah is convinced that everyone is after them, and that only certain foods are edible (mainly chips and soda), she then convinces Jeremiah that if they eat anything but those foods, they will be poisoned. Which then leads Sarah and Jeremiah on a failed attempt to shoplift at a grocery store, afterwards Jeremiah finds a hamburger to eat from a dumpster. His mother, in a state of "meth psychosis" is convinced the food he ate was poison, and makes him drink ipecac in order to make him better and rid him of any 'poisons'. Jeremiah wakes up in the hospital with his grandmother beside him. She tells him that Sarah is in the psychiatric ward. Later that night, Sarah collects Jeremiah from his hospital room, and, rather than have him go back to the cult, she clutches her son's hand and they both walk away in hospital gowns. The final scene is of Sarah and Jeremiah driving away.

The movie is rated R and the running time is 97 minutes. It was distributed by Palm Pictures and Wild Bunch and was filmed in Knoxville, Tennessee during the month of October, and was originally to be filmed in Mississippi in July; but the locations changed, which caused the filming date to be set later. Dylan and Cole Sprouse had to grow their hair out for the movie and at one point they had to dye their hair Jet Black, but it was an easy wash-out. Dylan Sprouse had been acting in the movie "Piggy Banks (Born Killers)" during the month of late August in Utah, so it interfered with the filming date.