The Heart of Me (review)

I’ve heard tell that there are women who find Paul Bettany positively dreamy. I’m not one of them, but there’s no doubt that his fans will swoon at this enjoyably morose and tragic tale of love and betrayal and tea — it’s Sense and Sensibility, with cheating. In fabulous 1930s England, where everyone dresses for dinner and passions are sublimated, flighty, artistic, and probably manic-depressive Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter: Novocaine) embarks on a mad affair with Rickie (Bettany: A Beautiful Mind). Only thing is, he’s married to her sister, Madeleine (Olivia Williams: Below), who’s a bit of a cold fish, for all her aristocratic beauty. Everyone is doomed, of course, in that deliciously soapy, Masterpiece Theaterish way, and you’ll leave the theater wishing you, too, could fall desperately, disastrously in love and have it end badly, so you could be forgiven for moping, all beautiful and melancholy, for the rest of your life like something out of Byron.