Taglines: For years her songs brought fame to other people. Then she found her own voice.
Grace of My Heart opens in the year 1958 where Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress living in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear.
At her mother’s insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Edna is even less thrilled about her mother’s choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, “Perhaps it’s not the dress. Perhaps it’s you who doesn’t fit, dear.”
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Doris’s sleek black dress, Edna sings “Hey There” instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Edna decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her “Denise Waverly” and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise (formerly Edna) moves to New York City and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Denise’s expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasn’t sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
In 1965, at Howard’s insistence, he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she’s had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed “too controversial” and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)’s niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend.
It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song “Unwanted Number” based on the girl’s struggle. Although it’s banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Grace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders and starring Illeana Douglas, set in the pop music world, starting in New York City’s Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid ’60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.
The plot follows the life and career trajectory of its protagonist, Denise Waverly. The soundtrack features songs by artists Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Gerry Goffin, and Jill Sobule, replicating the musical style that emerged from the Brill Building, New York City’s music factory in the heyday of girl groups and “pre-fab” acts like The Monkees.
Grace of My Heart (1996)
Directed by: Allison Anders
Starring: lleana Douglas, Matt Dillon, Eric Stoltz, Bruce Davison, Patsy Kensit, John Turturro, Christina Pickles, Jennifer Leigh Warren, Natalie Venetia Belcon
Screenplay by: Allison Anders
Production Design by: François Séguin
Cinematography by: Jean-Yves Escoffier
Film Editing by: James Y. Kwei, Harvey Rosenstock, Thelma Schoonmaker
Costume Design by: Susan L. Bertram
Set Decoration by: Sara Andrews
Art Direction by: Mayne Berke
Music by: Larry Klein
MPAA Rating: R for language, and for some sexuality and drug content.
Distributed by: Gramercy Pictures
Release Date: September 13, 1996
Hits: 150
