The Heart of Me
Sundance Channel Home Entertainment | Release Date: June 13, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Its intelligent characterizations make it one of the best movies I've seen this year. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Old-fashioned moviemaking at its best. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film is a soapy melodrama set from about 1936 to 1946 and done with style. Read full review
75
PremiereKelly Borgeson
Surely it’s a credit to this luminous cast that the characters can behave in such despicable ways yet still command one’s sympathy. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The film's power grows from its dark-toned portrayal of the World War II era and from its evocative use of flashbacks, which show more interest in the characters' emotional lives than in story devices like surprise and suspense. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
Solidly entertaining for those who like their dialogue crisp and with a main verb in every sentence. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Perhaps The Heart of Me's greatest success is the way it avoids turning any of its characters into villains. They all act badly at times, but we feel for them just the same; they never lose our sympathy. Weepy or not, that's an accomplishment any kind of film can feel proud of. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
In their own precisely posed ways, the drenched players in The Heart of Me are as compelling as those in any less decorum-bound love triangle. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneLoren King
A handsome but lightweight period piece about passions indulged and repressed, and the calamitous outcomes that result from both courses. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It has the feel of those romantic movies of the '40s that no one thinks are made anymore. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The first half of The Heart of Me is just that sort of hoot. You know where it's all headed, and you can't wait for it to get there, as the cheap, cruel ironies pile up almost farcically. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Their dilemmas are the stuff of dozens of Masterpiece Theater productions, but they're brought to life with a vividness that defies changing mores and cuts to the heart of the ways people justify hurting each other in the name of love. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
If you want to drift through emotional turmoil and a harrowing loss of security both personal and national, this project may provide some soggy satisfaction. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
It’s all veddy stiff-upper-lip -– this is romance from a masochist’s point of view -– and the intimacy of the emotions often feels cramped. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
A clean, tasteful drama (sex scenes aside) that's designed to attract Anglophiles who can't resist green lawns, falling leaves, precise diction, and a clean sound mix. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Madeleine's such a cold bitch that the adulterous lovers' anguished scruples scan like inert masochism. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Rote drama better suited for British television than theaters. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
There's heart but not much heat in this film version of "The Echoing Grove." Read full review
42
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
By a certain point The Heart of Me becomes pointlessly depressing and unlikable without offering insight. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
O'Sullivan's movie could easily have been made 60 years ago. This is not intended as a compliment. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
While director Thaddeus O'Sullivan has some interesting visual ideas -- his period London is a heavily aestheticized, matte-painted dreamscape -- he never makes an emotional connection to the material the way he did in his fine Irish gangland drama, “Nothing Personal.” Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The end product suggests tepid, bottom-drawer Merchant-Ivory in which the emotions rarely catch fire. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Dull and creaky soap opera. Read full review
10
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Terribly tragic, terribly romantic and, ultimately, terribly, terribly dull. Read full review
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