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Heart of Me, The
ThinkFilm Inc.


4.5

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for some sexuality

Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Williams, Paul Bettany, Eleanor Bron, Luke Newberry, Gillian Hanna, Andrew Havill, and Shaughan Seymour

Upper crust England before, during and after WWII provides the backdrop for The Heart of Me, a richly emotional drama about the seductive -- and destructive -- nature of passion. (ThinkFilm)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Lucinda Coxon Rosamond Lehmann (novel The Echoing Grove)
DIRECTED BY:	Thaddeus O'Sullivan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 10, 2004 Video: February 10, 2004 Theatrical: June 13, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / Germany

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Its intelligent characterizations make it one of the best movies I've seen this year.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film is a soapy melodrama set from about 1936 to 1946 and done with style.

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

Surely it’s a credit to this luminous cast that the characters can behave in such despicable ways yet still command one’s sympathy.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The film's power grows from its dark-toned portrayal of the World War II era and from its evocative use of flashbacks, which show more interest in the characters' emotional lives than in story devices like surprise and suspense.

Variety Derek Elley

Solidly entertaining for those who like their dialogue crisp and with a main verb in every sentence.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Perhaps The Heart of Me's greatest success is the way it avoids turning any of its characters into villains. They all act badly at times, but we feel for them just the same; they never lose our sympathy. Weepy or not, that's an accomplishment any kind of film can feel proud of.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

In their own precisely posed ways, the drenched players in The Heart of Me are as compelling as those in any less decorum-bound love triangle.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It has the feel of those romantic movies of the '40s that no one thinks are made anymore.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The first half of The Heart of Me is just that sort of hoot. You know where it's all headed, and you can't wait for it to get there, as the cheap, cruel ironies pile up almost farcically.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

A handsome but lightweight period piece about passions indulged and repressed, and the calamitous outcomes that result from both courses.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Their dilemmas are the stuff of dozens of Masterpiece Theater productions, but they're brought to life with a vividness that defies changing mores and cuts to the heart of the ways people justify hurting each other in the name of love.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

If you want to drift through emotional turmoil and a harrowing loss of security both personal and national, this project may provide some soggy satisfaction.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

There's heart but not much heat in this film version of "The Echoing Grove."

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Madeleine's such a cold bitch that the adulterous lovers' anguished scruples scan like inert masochism.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Rote drama better suited for British television than theaters.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

A clean, tasteful drama (sex scenes aside) that's designed to attract Anglophiles who can't resist green lawns, falling leaves, precise diction, and a clean sound mix.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

It’s all veddy stiff-upper-lip -– this is romance from a masochist’s point of view -– and the intimacy of the emotions often feels cramped.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

By a certain point The Heart of Me becomes pointlessly depressing and unlikable without offering insight.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

While director Thaddeus O'Sullivan has some interesting visual ideas -- his period London is a heavily aestheticized, matte-painted dreamscape -- he never makes an emotional connection to the material the way he did in his fine Irish gangland drama, “Nothing Personal.”

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

O'Sullivan's movie could easily have been made 60 years ago. This is not intended as a compliment.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The end product suggests tepid, bottom-drawer Merchant-Ivory in which the emotions rarely catch fire.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Dull and creaky soap opera.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Terribly tragic, terribly romantic and, ultimately, terribly, terribly dull.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

R. B. gave it a3:
Pretentious with ultimately unsympathetic characters.

Chad S. gave it a 6:
"The Heart of Me" didn't work for me because Madeline isn't the bitch, the emasculator, that Olivia Williams was supposed to be, which would merit Ricky's affair with Dinah. The affair is unromantic(which was thse film's intent, I think) because Dinah and Ricky come off as jerks for cheating on Madeline. You want to smack Bettany when a single tear rolls down his cheek while he's on the phone. You're supposed to care that he's trapped in a loveless marriage, and his true love is afraid of commitment. We don't. And it's never explained as to why Dinah is so hellbent on ruining her sister's life. Madeline doesn't hate her, but we do, so there must be something wrong with the character, or Helena Bonham's performance. What redeems "The Heart of Me" is a nice performance by Olivia Williams, and dark photography that's appropriate to time and place, and the genre of melodrama.

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Heart of Me, The ThinkFilm Inc.

Heart of Me, The
ThinkFilm Inc.