Grace of my heart

In “Grace of My Heart” Allison Anders has used a number of rock’n roll reference points, creating character pastiches of famed musicians, producers and industry types. None of the characters directly match up to their real life counterparts, but the similarities are clear. Broadly based on the life of Carol King, ” Grace of My Heart” tells the story of Denise Waverly (Illeana Douglas), who starts her career as a want to be singer from Philadelphia, and goes on to become a successful songwriter. The story traces the long journey of personal discovery she must go through to ultimately become all that she wants to be. The film sets itself among the corridors of the famed Brill Building during the doo-wop heyday of the late fifties all the way through Malibu’s psychedelic surfer scene of the late sixties. With period costuming and a wall-to-wall pop soundtrack featuring the likes of Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, Lesley Gore, Carole Bayer Sager, J Mascis and Sonic Youth. Also starring John Turturro as Denise’s mentor and record-producer, Eric Stoltz as husband number 1, and Matt Dillon as husband number 2.