The Heart of Me
review by Nicholas Schager, 13 June 2003
Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The
Heart of Me, the story of a romantic triangle that consumes, and
nearly destroys, three upper crust British family members before and
after WWII, is cast in the Merchant/Ivory mold. Mr. O’Sullivan’s
film, adapted from a Rosamond Lehmann novel by Lucinda Coxon,
attempts to mimic the stately grace and pent-up emotional desire of
predecessors The Remains of
the Day and Howard’s End,
utilizing measured camera work and deliberate performances to convey
a world in which societal convention trumps free will, and personal
desire is confined to the dank, dusty basement of the heart. It is
an imitation infused with little inspiration, but if its portrait of
adulterous machinations is as familiar as the sight of Helena Bonham
Carter in a period drama, the film nonetheless benefits from
performances perfectly calibrated for repressed torment.
Rickie (Paul Bettany) and
Madeleine’s (Olivia Williams) marriage comes under stress when
Madeleine’s free-spirited sister Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter),
after years of traveling, reappears to attend their father’s
funeral. Madeleine, a prissy and obnoxious socialite, attempts to
play condescending matchmaker for her sister, but when she finds a
willing and able suitor, it is Rickie who orders Dinah to break the
engagement off. The two siblings-in-law, enflamed by reckless
passion, begin a clandestine affair under Madeleine’s nose, but
the truth eventually comes out, sparking a battle of wills between
Madeleine and Dinah for the affection of Rickie, a docile pawn
manipulated as the women in his life see fit. As the affair
transforms from playful reverie into destructive force, our
sympathies are splintered – while we are supposed to be caught up
in Rickie and Dinah’s happiness, we are also repeatedly reminded
of Madeleine’s victim status – and this delicate balancing act
suggests the complexities of a love affair in which all parties
retain some measure of guilt.
O’Sullivan abandons typical
period frippery in favor of an austere visual palette and set design
that reflects the character’s misery, and this unwillingness to
replicate every one of the genre’s tropes is a worthy ambition.
His direction, however, is placidly elegant – the constant use of
close-ups and zooms alternate between sophistication and
self-consciousness – and this competent but dreary guidance
frequently steers the story into a torpor. The film is built upon a
foundation of unspoken truths and concealed emotions, but
O’Sullivan isn’t dexterous enough to navigate through this
murky, amorphous territory, and thus resorts to clunky maneuvers –
such as using bomb-decimated London as a symbolic reflection of
their despair – to flesh out his characters’ chaotic frames of
mind.
What allows the film to rise above
its awkward construction is a pair of fine performances from Helena
Bonham Carter and Olivia Williams, and a truly superb turn courtesy
of Paul Bettany. Carter, playing the stereotypically stubborn
iconoclast whose interests include nude paintings and smoking, wraps
insolence around her frame like a fur coat, embodying Dinah with an
alluring petulance. She’s ably matched by Williams, who has the
thankless task of eliciting both our contempt and sympathy as the
scorned Madeleine, a conniving, cold woman driven to duplicitous
lengths to retain her beloved husband. Yet the film’s moderate
success can be traced to Bettany, whose Rickie is a roiling bundle
of unwanted responsibilities and unattainable yearnings. Desperate
to enjoy bliss with Dinah but never bold enough to fully abandon his
family and the society that would shun him for such a decision,
he’s a man tenuously straddling two worlds. That the film’s pat
conclusion absolves him of such a momentous decision is merely one
of its shortcomings, but Mr. Bettany, his strikingly supple and open
face revealing a naked timidity awash in self-doubt and
self-loathing, is certainly worth the price of admission |
Directed
by:
Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Starring:
Helena Bonham Carter
Olivia Williams
Paul Bettany
Eleanor Bron
Luke Newberry
Gillian Hanna
Andrew Havill
Shaughan Seymour
Simon Day
Rosie Ede
Paul Ridley
Written
by:
Lucinda Coxon
Rated:
R - Restricted.
Under 17 requires
parent or adult
guardian.
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