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THE HEART OF ME Send This Review to a Friend
An old-fashioned soap opera with plenty of suds, "The Heart of Me," based on Rosamond Lehmann's "The Echoing Grove," is awash in plot and complicated relationships. Despite its overwrought nature, the story is often engrossing. But so much is going on that the approximately an hour and a half running time seems much longer, not out of boredom, but simply because so much is packed into the story, set in London and spanning 16 years (1930-1946), including the flitting back and forth with numerous flashbacks.
Sisters, sisters. What happens when one sister falls in love with the other sister's husband? Plenty of anguish. Count on it. Olivia Williams plays Madeleine, a rather uptight, outwardly together wife married to Rickie, played rather blandly by Paul Bettany, who is becoming estranged from the dull and not very loving marital relationship.
Helena Bonham Carter turns up as Dinah, the free-spirited, footloose sister. It doesn't take very long for Ricki's libido to wander and Dinah to be receptive. Off they romp into a secret, torrid affair. I'll spare you the plot details of angst, tragedy, scheming, misunderstandings, the ravages of war and the outcome. If you are curious, go.
We are taken through many time switches before there's a chance for sisterly reconciliation. The problem with the film is the casting of Helena Bonham Carter as Dinah. I don't think we are meant to dislike her or be impatient with her. We should sympathize with both women for the drama to work. But as portrayed by Bonham Carter, Dinah is too much of an oddball in looks and demeanor and Ricki's enchantment with her is never really convincing. The role needs to be played as someone less problematical.
Eleanor Bron is well cast as the mother of the women and believable as she connives to hold the marriage together. Thaddeus O'Sullivan directs as he might for a television mini-series. A THINKfilm release.
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