The Heart of Me (2003) – DVD

**½/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras C+
starring Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Williams, Paul Bettany, Eleanor Bron
screenplay by Lucinda Coxon, based on the novel The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover There’s nothing especially wrong with The Heart of Me, a professional, handsomely mounted, beautifully shot film featuring good performances from an attractive cast and a script that can at least be described as well-written. Unfortunately, that same screenplay doesn’t go far enough in pondering the ramifications of its narrative events: people fall in and out of love arbitrarily, make decisions because the plot requires it, and do horrible things just to get a rise out of the audience. There’s no real artistic purpose beyond the sound and fury of the story–it’s more designed and photographed than written and directed, with no real thematic exploration going on behind the devastatingly gorgeous goings-on. Thus The Heart of Me is craftsman-like enough to keep you watching, but it leaves you with nothing beyond a bunch of people being melodramatic while surrounded by sumptuous décor.

Set in 1930s London, the film deals with the strained relationship between sisters Madeleine (Olivia Williams) and Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter). Madeleine is the reserved socialite, married to handsome Ricky (Paul Bettany), while Dinah is more of a bohemian and someone who has trouble nailing down a decent man. This last problem ceases to be an issue, however, when Dinah comes to live with Madeleine and Ricky and Ricky falls madly in love with her. Soon the two are rolling around naked behind Madeleine’s back, which leads to an unwanted pregnancy and a near-fatal delivery for Dinah; this, naturally, does not impress poor Madeleine, who may be an ice queen but still has feelings of her own. When Ricky develops an ulcer, putting him in the hospital, she schemes with mother (Eleanor Bron) to drive a wedge between the two lovers.

Not a bad springboard to drama, but somehow, nobody takes the plunge: the filmmakers can’t find anything within the narrative beyond a series of randomly-set emotional charges. Director Thaddeus O’Sullivan doesn’t read anything into the script with the images: he’s basically showing off the expensive sets and costumes, and revelling in the classiness of his milieu. Crucially, for a film largely set in the Thirties, there’s no mention of the Great Depression, because that would blow the sumptuous party that O’Sullivan is trying to throw: to him, the past is merely one more pricey item to be shown in a glass case, and he’s not going to upset it with the intrusion of actual poverty. Thus the images become nothing more than the frame for some high melodrama, isolating the action from any subtextual developments and making it just a progression of minor shocks on the way to a conclusion.

There’s solid craft to the film’s externals, such as they are: not only are the costumes attractive and the set design elegant, but the film is also very well photographed by Gyula Pados: so exquisitely modulated is his lighting that you wonder what might have happened if they had handed the production over to him. And the acting by the principals is uniformly fine–one can see the panic in Bettany’s face as he wonders just what the hell he’s going to do about these two women in his life; his fear and trembling give the film as much of a subtext as it’s going to get. I would simply suggest that one not mistake this ever-so-classy production for the art object it pretends to be. It looks nice, but it’s not much of a conversation piece.

THE DVD
THINKFilm’s The Heart of Me disc, a repackaging of the Stateside Sundance Channel release, is adequate but little more. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer isn’t quite vibrant enough to do justice to Pados’s lustrous palette–one feels the presence of a pallid veil between the viewer and the image. Furthermore, definition is a little soft and the odd stray pixel rears its ugly head. Meanwhile, the 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is perfectly audible but creatively unremarkable: so many components of the mix are clustered around the front channels (save for the odd music cue) that you wonder why they bothered going the 5.1 route in the first place.

In the extras department, find a largely disposable commentary track from director Thaddeus O’Sullivan and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon in which the two dispense as few comments as possible about obvious plot developments and stylistic choices, with the odd bit of off-screen intrigue thrown in for variety. All three principals give their takes on their characters and the film in toto in a slightly more informative behind-the-scenes featurette (6 mins.), while Coxon introduces a deleted scene–though the reason for its excision would not have otherwise been a mystery, as its protestations of love between Bonham-Carter and Bettany are redundant in context. The film’s trailer and a weblink round out the package.

96 minutes; R; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1; CC; DVD-9; Region One; TH!NKFilm