Bowen’s Heart – Review
90 Minutes, Unrated (Documentary)
Written by Lexi Read
Directed by Lexi and Zach Read
Synopsis:
Bowen’s Heart offers a deeply vulnerable view of how chronic illness impacts an entire family. The critically acclaimed documentary follows, a then eight-year-old Bowen Hammitt, through his third major open-heart surgery as his parents struggle with the hope that the surgery could make his life better and the knowledge that it could make things much worse.
As a parent, it’s hard to grasp the concept of losing a child. Even more difficult to grasp, though, might be the idea of losing a child because of decisions you make or don’t make throughout their lives.
Yes, that’s kind of an over-simplification of what’s going on here, but you get the idea.
Less than a week after birth, allowing your child to undergo a procedure which might save their lives makes sense. Having the second of a projected three surgeries at six months old to improve their chances also makes sense.
At age eight, having to make the decision whether or not to undergo the third surgery, which had been delayed due to the positive results of the first two, because of quality-of-life issues, is a bit harder.
What if the surgery doesn’t help? What if Bowen regresses?
What if–worst case–he dies?
As a parent, surgery on an infant makes sense; you are trying to give that child a chance at a life. By age eight, they’ve had a life: a short one, but an actual life, with birthdays, school, friends…
The emotional calculus is different.
[Does that sound cold? Probably, but it helps keeps me focused on the film and not the child.]
Bowen’s Heart shows us the impact a medical issue has not only on the person who has it, but on the community around them; family, friends, even the doctors and nurses treating them.
Inevitably, especially when dealing with children, it seems as though the weight is borne best by the patient. I’m sure some psychologist could explain why, but maybe it’s simply because they are living it, not just living with it. It is their “natural” state and so are less prone (though not immune) to the uncertainty and speculation surrounding them.
It could also be, again especially with children, that they simply don’t know enough to know how bad it truly is.
Or could it be, as the Hammitt family’s faith might argue, that children simply possess a greater grace?
Whatever the reason, Bowen Hammitt is a remarkable child, with a remarkable set of parents and siblings, who stand with him on every step of his journey, even if they don’t completely understand what the next step entails, or what the outcome might be.
Bowen’s Heart is a compelling look at one life in peril and the lives that surround it. Any parent will immediately identify with this film, and anyone can find themselves engrossed by Bowen’s spirit and courage, even in his weakest moments.
And look; it would be incredibly easy to ricochet off this film into a bloated and polarizing discussion of the hot-button topic of today, which is abortion, and I’m sure that there are dozens of deep-thought pieces out there like that. The only reason I mention it is because, inevitably, someone is going to ask, “why didn’t you talk about this?”
I don’t want to do that, because that’s not what we do here at the Visually Stunning Movie Podcast, but I will say “life is precious and deserves every chance to thrive.”
We may disagree on when life begins, but can’t we all at least agree on that?
Bowen’s Heart is available now on Digital.
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tags: movies, movie review, TITLE, STARS, DIRECTOR, WRITER, GENRE, KEYWORDS