The Heart of Me

SYNOPSIS

Director Thaddeus O'Sullivan has given this period tale of adultery and redemption a bittersweet piquancy - memorably enhanced by the actors - while Nicholas Hooper's original score underlines its discreet romanticism. Scriptwriter Lucinda Coxon has lost some of the affecting sensibility of Rosamond Lehmann's novel about two sisters who are in love with the same man by relying too much on emotional clichés. Nevertheless, stars Paul Bettany (the upper-class Rickie), Olivia Williams (his cold wife, Madeleine) and Helena Bonham Carter (her spirited sister, Dinah) do make an engaging ménage à trois, entangled in the class restrictions of the 1930s as well as their own lusts. There are times when events seem over-manipulated, but at its best the film is an encounter with the enduring nature of love - at its worst, a pale copy of a Merchant Ivory movie.