Asia Argento's The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is dark and disturbing film. Not knowing Leroy's work, I can not comment on the accuracy to the book. It is not meant to be uplifting but has a strange attraction like voyeuristically watching a car wreck.
The film is carried in the acting of both Sarah (Asia Argento) and Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett, Cole and Dylan Sprouse). Young Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennet) barely speaks but absorbs everything in a fearful way. Older Jeremiah (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) has lost the haunting fear in his eyes, and replaced it with a longing desire to belong. Sarah is manic and wild and bounces from lover to lover in her own haze. Between both of them there is a strange form of love. It is not healthly or wise, but it does exist. Another acting kudo must go to Peter Fonda as the Patriarch fundamentalist with his own long line of issues.
Argento's filming style and screenplay bring the viewer to the same state as the character over and over again. Her style is similar to Tarantino's Natural Born Killers, and Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The camera switched from Jeremiah's eyes to the world in a symbiosis of light and sound. When Jeremiah is young, the camera pans up to see everyone. When he is older, it never seems quite in focus. Argento's style also has many elements of David Lynch. The screenplay has elements of Running with Scissors (a sane child in a dysfunctional family) but makes Scissors surpringly tame.
Thirty minutes in to the film the music becomes a dischordant mess. It is more than a foreshadowing of the characters but a synopsis of the film. It is uneven, unpleasant and hard to watch. It is also risk taking with characters and ideas. It's easier to watch the horse riding into the sunset than to watch this film. This film leaves a mark on the viewer's brain that doesn't wash out.