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The Heart of Me (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:55
Fresh:27
Rotten:28
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: This movie about passion and betrayal finds itself severely lacking in the former.
Theatrical Release:Jun 13, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: 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. A classic... 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. A classic romantic triangle, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Williams as sisters Dinah and Madeleine, and Paul Bettany as Rickie, Madeleine's husband, who finds himself drawn to his darkly beautiful, bohemian sister-in-law. Torn between two women, one who always plays by the rules and one who always breaks them, Rickie risks everything by falling into a clandestine affair with Dinah. What follows is more than a decade of deception, betrayal, and manipulation during which Rickie's carefully constructed world falls apart and he is all but destroyed by love. Over the years, the two sisters wage a fierce battle for his heart that exposes their vast differences as well as their surprising bonds. A sumptuously mounted vision of an all-but-vanished world, in which appearances and propriety govern every relationship, THE HEART OF ME is based on the 1953 best-seller, "The Echoing Grove," by noted novelist Rosamond Lehmann (and loosely based on her illicit affair with Poet Laureate, C. Day Lewis). Intricately structured as a progression of post-war flashbacks that gradually reveal a host of personal and societal conflicts, the film brings an unusual degree of sexual candor and dark psychology to a time and place normally thought of as "polite." The powerful performances of Bettany ("A Beautiful Mind", "A Knight's Tale") and Williams ("The Sixth Sense", "Rushmore") establish them as full-fledged romantic leads and, in her strongest role since her Oscar-nominated turn in "The Wings of the Dove," Bonham Carter once again shows she is unequalled in giving a modern face to period characters struggling with the boundaries of convention. -- © ThinkFilm [More]
Starring: Helena Bonham-Carter, Olivia Williams, Paul Bettany, Eleanor Bron
Starring: Helena Bonham-Carter, Olivia Williams, Paul Bettany, Eleanor Bron
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Screenwriter: Lucinda Coxon
Producer: Martin Pope
Composer: Nicholas Hooper
Studio: ThinkFilm
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Reviews for The Heart of Me
Three stars, for a trio of quality lead performances that survive the relentless card-shuffling of the plot -- and because Ricky Masters is just a great name any way you slice it.
While far from the gold standard of The Remains of the Day, it presses all the appropriate buttons.
Under the several layers of stuffed shirts that this film seems to wear beats the heart of an old-fashioned, tearjerking romantic drama.
Terribly tragic, terribly romantic and, ultimately, terribly, terribly dull.
Its unwieldy structure, which pops back and forth between the 1930s and '40s, makes the movie choppy for no good reason.
By a certain point The Heart of Me becomes pointlessly depressing and unlikable without offering insight.
The film is a soapy melodrama set from about 1936 to 1946 and done with style.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
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