The Heart of Me

In the 1930s, Madeleine (Olivia Williams) and Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter) are sisters with little in common except for their bloodlines and the man that they both love. Madeleine and her husband Rickie (Paul Bettany) appear to be the perfect couple: they have an exquisite home, a loving son, and are obviously well bred and well off. When Madeleine's bohemian sister, Dinah, returns to pre-World War II London for their father's funeral, she finds herself drawn to her brother-in-law. The attraction is mutual, and while Madeleine tries to marry her sister off to a fine gentleman, Dinah and Rickie begin a torrid love affair with heartbreaking consequences. The costumes and sets of the film evoke both the grandeur of London society in the 1930s and the war-ravaged city it became in the 1940s. Bonham Carter brings a childlike wonder to Dinah, a free spirit with unbridled passion for life. Williams' Madeleine, meanwhile, is almost bittersweet--she seems to envy Dinah's freedom, yet would never let down her own guard or upset her pristine world. As Rickie, Bettany is a perfect British gentleman who suddenly finds himself a bundle of raw emotion.