Critic Reviews

Its intelligent characterizations make it one of the best movies I've seen this year.

Old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.

The film is a soapy melodrama set from about 1936 to 1946 and done with style.

Surely it’s a credit to this luminous cast that the characters can behave in such despicable ways yet still command one’s sympathy.

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.

Solidly entertaining for those who like their dialogue crisp and with a main verb in every sentence.

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.

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.

It has the feel of those romantic movies of the '40s that no one thinks are made anymore.

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.