Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 22, 2005 | | Summary | "I'm so ready to be happy" | Content
 | Gorgeously directed, and with some wonderful ensemble performances by Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Williams and Paul Bettany, The Heart of Me shows the terrible price one must pay for choosing between propriety and passion. The traditional romantic triangle is played out amongst the background of the well-bred English upper crust, where emotions are kept in check, and where decorum and respectability must be adhered to at all costs. For a film that is supposed to be about sexual passion, there is a noticeable lack of it, and what passion there is, is presented in a willowy, breezy "Marie Claire" kind of way. But this minor quibble shouldn't negate the power and the overall emotional effectiveness of the story - it's still very well done.
Viewers will probably realize that from the outset, none of the characters are ever going to achieve lasting happiness. Full of betrayal, tears, and deceit, and the notion that one must endlessly suffer for love, The Heart of Me - adapted from Rosamond Lehmann's 1953 novel The Echoing Grove - follows two sisters the impulsive Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter), the beautiful, icy Madeleine (Olivia Williams), and their handsome paramour, Rickie (Paul Bettany) though the glitz and glamour of London in the thirties to the end of the War. Dinah and Madeleine are two very different siblings: Dinah is a successful mother and is seemingly happily wed to Rickie who works as some kind of stock broker in the city. She's straight-laced and correct, always intent in maintaining her somewhat flimsy veneer of social respectability.
Currently Madeleine is engaged in finding Dinah a respectable husband. But Dinah is somewhat the rebel and celebrates in being anti-establishment; she loves passion and the arts and gets off on reading William Blake. Dinah rolls her eyes at Madeleine's efforts, and further incenses her sister and her Mother (Eleanor Bron) by taking art courses and walking off in rainstorms without caring whether she gets wet. She doesn't really want to marry anyone and she doesn't really care when Rickie tells her to break off the engagement to the dull, but socially impeccable Charles (Andrew Havill). Of course, Rickie is absolutely smitten with Dinah; they just can't keep their hands off each other, meeting for after work trysts and sessions of furtive love making - once in a park on New Years eve, and then in Dinah's own run-down, bohemian apartment that she shares with Bridie (Alison Reid).
Dinah and Rickie can't keep their secret for long, and Madeleine can't keep up her facade of marital bliss, and much of the movie centers on how they all navigate these potentially disastrous waters of deceit. Rickie is torn between duty, familial obligations, and his heart's desires, while the concerned Madeleine sits at home and frets cluelessly about Dinah's escapades with the mannish Bridie. Dinah hovers between passionate love, and fierce independence - in one scene, she vows that she's had quite enough of Rickie, yet later she confronts him in a crowded restaurant and begs him to take her back.
Structurally the movie is quite interesting: Madeline and Dinah meet at the dust-ridden, neglected family house after the war. Rickie is now dead - killed in the blitz, and both of the sisters must face the angry ghosts of the past. As they talk, they both reminisce - in a series of flashbacks - to those heady days in London when both of them were full of vitriolic passion. The movie is a masterpiece of tight voices, resolute looks, and carefully clipped phrases, with the three actors delivering marvelously shaded performances. The Heart of Me also touches on many universal themes - the battle between uncontrolled yearning and oppressive morality, the cost of sibling rivalry, and penalty of careless non-conformity; these themes are as timeless and as everlasting today as they were during the tumultuous years in which this film is set. Mike Leonard March 05.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 03, 2005 | | Summary | Take Your Shoes Off B4 Watching! | Content
| Thaddeus O'Sullivan whose "Nothing Personal" was a violent story set in the Irish conflict and who also directed "Ordinary Decent Criminal" with Kevin Spacey helms a great cast through this tediously melodramatic period piece. Based on Rosamond Lehmann's 1953 novel "The Echoing Grove," this film traces a love triangle between two sisters and one man. As Madeleine, Olivia Williams gives another wonderful performance as the judgmental sister who is married to Ricky, but who is unable to show much affection to her husband. She played Bruce Willis' wife in "The Sixth Sense" and was mother to the kids in the 2003 version of "Peter Pan." She does a great job in this film, but the tediousness of the melodrama made me want to throw my shoe at her about two-thirds of the way through the DVD. Helena Bonham Carter is one of Britain's most interesting actresses whose roles span the somewhat demented lady in "Big Fish" to her most unusual role in "Planet of the Apes" to her wild character in "Fight Club" and her Oscar-nominated performance for "The Wings of the Dove." As Dinah, she is interesting, entrancing and delightful. However, I wanted to throw my shoe at her for not insisting that she be allowed into Ricky's hospital room! Then there is the masterful Paul Bettany who plays Ricky as the quite conflicted husband, drawn to family duty and position, but whose heart leads him to a love affair with Dinah. The steamy romantic scenes make interesting this tale about otherwise quite neurotic people who make you want to throw your shoes at them! Eleanor Bron does an excellent job as the mother of the girls who gets right in the middle of their personal lives and tries to do what she thinks best. Of course, it keeps the lovers apart; so she screws their lives up royally. She goes from playing Bettany's mother-in-law here to playing his mother in the recent romantic romp "Wimbledon." She has had a long distinguished career, appearing in the original "Alfie" in 1966, the classic "Women In Love" in 1969, and recently in "Iris." Luke Newberry as the child Anthony does a nice job in his first film role. All in all, this is a picture from a different cultural time, one hinging on proprieties and what others will think. It is well done and extremely well acted. My only advice is to watch it in your stocking feet! Enjoy! |
| Rating | | | Date | February 27, 2005 | | Summary | "So there's to be no end to it?" | Content
| "The Heart of Me" is a drama depicting a love triangle between Madeleine (Olivia Williams), her husband Rickie (Paul Bettany), and Madeleine's unconventional sister, Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter). After the death of Madeleine and Dinah's father, Dinah comes to stay in London. Madeleine wants to create an eligible match for Dinah, and it's when Rickie opposes the match that he realizes that he has strong feelings for Dinah. They launch into a passionate affair that has disastrous consequences.
"The Heart of Me" is a lavish, tear jerker crammed with stellar performances, and excellent sets. With Helena Bonham Carter looking very Edwardian Goth, the story develops from 1934 through flashbacks and concludes in the austerity of Post WWII. Eleanor Bron appears in a splendid supporting role as Madeleine and Dinah's forthright, socially conscious mother.
"The Heart of Me" plays on the same themes as another successful costume drama--"The Age of Innocence." Both films illustrate how societal pressures squash a scandalous romance. In "The Heart of Me" Rickie, is the married man caught between passion and duty. Unfortunately, since his relationships are with two sisters, the ramifications and recriminations go beyond just the affair. While Bettany does an incredible job, the main interest remains in the relationship between the two sisters who have long simmering rivalries and petty grievances. Madeleine is the perfect mother, and the perfect hostess. Dinah, on the other hand is ready to give up material comforts, flout society, and live in relative poverty for the sake of love. Rickie is caught between Madeleine, who coldly controls with duty, and guilt, and the volatile passion of Dinah. Scenes of elegant dinner parties are juxtaposed with the occasional explosive domestic scene in which Rickie and Madeleine reveal the naked ugliness of a miserable, dead marriage. For lovers of British costume dramas, this film is a treat. While it's basically just a soap gravitating around three characters who have an immense capacity to make each other miserable, it's so well done, it's possible to immerse oneself in the drama. The film is based on the novel, "The Echoing Grove" by Rosamond Lehmann--displacedhuman. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 15, 2004 | | Summary | TWO SISTERS...ONE MAN... | Content
| This is a very well made movie with a stellar cast and an intelligent script. The plot revolves around two sisters who are total opposites. Madeleine (Olivia Williams) is the glossy, cool, conventional, and undemonstrative sister who is more interested in the outward than in the inward. For Madeleine, appearances are paramount. Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter) is the artistic, bohemian younger sister who is headstrong, passionate, and fiery, in touch with her own feelings but caring little for the feelings of others, if they get in the way of what she wants. She cares little for conventions and is the bane of her sister's existence.
The prim and proper Madeleine is married to Rickie (Paul Brettany), her handsome, wealthy husband, with whom she leads a very proper, upper crust life. Attracted to his sister-in-law, Rickie engages in a forbidden, secret affair with her that turns into a deep and abiding love. Rickie finds in Dinah what is lacking in his wife. These soul mates, however, are destined for tragedy when they choose to defy the conventions of the strictly moral and puritanical society in which they live. The sisters' mother, Mrs. Burkett (Eleanor Bron), interjects herself into the situation in order to preserve the status quo, dividing the illicit lovers through deception.
The film, which begins in 1934 England and covers a twelve years period through 1946, is deftly directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Olivia Williams gives an intelligent, picture perfect performance as the coolly reserved Madeleine, whose facade finally cracks when she discovers her sister's and her husband's perfidy and betrayal. She ultimately is able to be in touch with her feelings and find the necessary catharsis in the end to make right what went wrong.
Helena Bonham Carter is, as always, a picture of perfection, making the reprehensible Dinah ultimately likable when self-awareness of what she has wrought dawns upon her. Paul Brettany shows that he has what it takes to be a leading man, as his reprisal of the romantically beleaguered Rickie is a sensitive portrait of a man caught between two worlds, wanting to make all those around him happy but, in the end, failing. Eleanor Bron is wonderful as the well-meaning matriarch who understands both her daughters all too well.
This film is a beautiful period piece, with gorgeous costumes, wonderful sets, and excellent performances. It is a film well worth watching by those who are fans of this genre.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 18, 2004 | | Summary | If you liked this one... | Content
| If you enjoyed Heart of Me as I did, I would also suggest the movie "Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights" (with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche) and "Till Human Voices Wake Us" (also with Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce). Wuthering Heights is chilling and the acting is superb. Till Human Voices is a powerful story with brilliant cinematography. Hope you enjoy. |
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