The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

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Directed by Asia Argento.

Starring Asia Argento, Peter Fonda, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Jimmy Bennett.

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Actress and filmmaker Asia Argento directed this faithful screen adaptation of the fictional J.T. Leroy's fictional memoir, which documents a boy's truly harrowing road to adulthood. Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett) is the seven-year-old son of Sarah (Asia Argento), an unstable and unwed mother who abandoned her son and left him to be raised by foster parents. Jeremiah has come to love his guardians, and is devastated when Sarah arrives at their doorstep, demanding her child back. Threatening Jeremiah with torture if he tries to run away, Sarah introduces her young son to drugs and encourages her one-night-stand paramours to help "discipline" her son when she feels his behavior is inappropriate. Sarah marries a man named Emerson (Jeremy Renner), but abandons him shortly afterward; Emerson responds by molesting Jeremiah, and soon the child is left in the care of his grandparents (Peter Fonda and Ornella Muti), members of a fundamentalist Christian sect which emphasizes child discipline that's strict to the point of abuse. After three years, Sarah returns with a new husband, Kenny (Matt Schulze), and takes Jeremiah (now played by Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse) with her; Kenny spends most of his time on the road as a trucker, and Sarah supports the family at home as a stripper and a prostitute. Sarah also begins dressing her son is girl's clothing, which excites the perverse appetites of Sarah's latest boyfriend, Jackson (Marilyn Manson); she soon leaves Jackson and pairs off with Chester (Jeremy Sisto), a biker with a dangerous way of making a living. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the "Directors Fortnight" series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

What Heart?
by QFLW in QFLW Blog

lost interest.

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"The Heart Is Deceitful Above All ThingsWritten & directed by Asia Argento, based on the novel by J. T. LeRoyMy heart sank when I pulled the DVD out of the envelope. Wasn't interested in watching this film, and my first instincts were correct. A horror story told erratically and clumsily, without any relief. Not the performances, not the writing, not the camera work.In hindsight I noticed that the kudos on the DVD sleeve are for the novel, not the film. But the film doesn't make me want to read the book. " [More]

The Heart is Lifeless, Cold, an ...
by solafekxela in solafekxela Blog

disliked it.

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"Italian filmmaker Dario Argento is considered the all time great horror maestro, with films like Suspiria and Inferno on his resume. HIs daughter, Asia Argento, is an aspiring young filmmaker and actress with a few films under her belt. Her latest, with a title as agonizingly interminable as the film itself, is a near-shameful entry into the oeuvre of her family. It’s torture porn meets melodrama meets senseless violence meets, well, porn. There is not one image in The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things that did not disturb, annoy, or offend me. Based (loosely, I presume) on a short story by J.T. LeRoy, Argento’s film stars herself as an irresponsible teenage mother and Jimmy Bennett as Jeremiah, her seven-year-old son dragged from the comparatively heavenly foster home and thrust into a world of sexual and physical abuse. No film excites me more than one that sets out to toss countless disturbing images at my face for unidentifiable reasons. Schindler’s List po ... " [More]

Disturbing and Sadistic
by indieabby88 in Bloggish review blog

hasn't rated it.

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"It was hard for me to watch "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things." I don't usually take well to films about child abuse (for obvious reasons), but I was willing to give this one a shot. I shouldn't have.Asia Argento's directorial effort is based on the "autobiographical" novel by J.T. LeRoy, who is in fact not a real person, but a character devised by writer Laura Albert. It's the story of Jeremiah, a little boy taken from his foster home to live with his completely drug-addled and unfit mother, Sarah (Argento). After going through several boyfriends and one husband, who rapes Jeremiah after Sarah scarpers, the boy is left in the care of his strict Christian grandparents (Peter Fonda and Ornella Muti). After three years living and preaching under their creepy but more stable care, Sarah takes Jeremiah back and pulls him with her on her fast journey to rock bottom.First of all, I have a hard time figuring out why any social worker would think ... " [More]

And you thought you had it bad!
by tadiv in tadiv Blog

is neutral about it.

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"Palm Pictures presents Asia Argento’s film adaptation of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. This picture stars Asia Argento as Sarah, Jimmy Bennett as young Jeremiah, and Cole and Dylan Sprouse trade off as the older Jeremiah. The cast includes smaller roles for Peter Fonda, Marilyn Manson, Winona Ryder, and Michael Pitt. The film runs 98 minutes. Jeremiah, taken at age 7 from a loving foster family that wanted to adopt him, is delivered by Social Services to his biological mother, Sarah. From this point forward, his life is one story of neglect and abuse after another as his mother drags him like a rag doll from one deadbeat lover to the next. The only break is a three-year time jump while Jeremiah lives with, and takes unknown abuse from, Sarah’s Christian Fundamentalist parents and the rest of the residents in their church-like home. This picture uses sets and/or locations that clearly depict the life of those in poverty in America. While some of ... " [More]

Junky Princess : The Heart is D ...
by jlgdrd in Wicked Fun

hasn't rated it.

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"It is rare that I feel so utterly and completely mortified, frustrated and disgusted by a film, despite its brilliance. After watching Asia Argento’s The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things and discovering the source material came from a literary figure who was fabricated, my initial response was, “What next?” The film itself is problematic and flawed enough without this additional layer of confusion trying to fob itself off as intrigue.After doing a bit of research I discovered that JT LeRoy’s novel : The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things , was actually written by Laura Albert, who cultivated the alias down to dressing her boyfriend’s half-sister, Savannah Knoop, as the teenage boy. Knoop then proceeded to make guest appearances at book releases and other promotional events. Albert claimed that the persona of JT was a “veil” that permitted her to write things she couldn’t as herself. Of course, novelists employ different narrators ... " [More]

The Heart is Deceitful Above al ...
by analogzombie in analogzombie Blog

lost interest.

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"If there is any such thing as film royalty, then Asia Argento surely belongs in its ranks. Not the snobby, upper levels with the likes of Sophia Coppola or Nick Cassavetes, but the grittier, “cool kid” level. The offspring of Italian horror legend Dario Argento and some beautiful model, Asia Argento has just recently come into her own as acting and directing presence. She has been appearing in European television and low budget horror films for some time, but her turn in Romero’s Land of the Dead and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things mark the beginning of what will most likely become her trademark style.With Heart, Argento splits her time between acting and directing. This is a tall order for anyone. The film is based on the work of JT LeRoy and is suppose to be a biographical account of his tortured and turbulent youth. In reality JT LeRoy is a concoction of a New England couple hoping that the gimmick of a sexually confused white trash novelist would prop ... " [More]

liked it.

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"‘The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things‘ is the eponymous title of the book by fictional author JT LeRoy and the movie adapted from it by actress, writer and director, Asia Agento, the daughter of Italian horror director Dario Argento. Based on the work of author JT LeRoy. LeRoy became something of an overnight sensation in 1997, after the publication of several stories and two novels, ‘Sarah’ (1999) and ‘The Heart is Deceitful of All Things’(1999). But JT LeRoy does not exist. Like James Frey’s ‘A Million Little Pieces‘, ‘Heart’ is a piece of fiction dreamed up by an author with an assumed identity, who sold her book as biography. In this case, JT LeRoy was allegedly a young man from West Virginia, the son of a negligent hooker, who somehow broke loose of his mother to peddle his ass throughout the South, before washing up in San Francisco to become the protege of writers Laura Albert and Geoffrey Knoop. That said ... " [More]

The Heart is Deceitful Above Al ...
by JimBell in JimBell Blog

disliked it.

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"The good thing about sending a movie like The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things out to half a dozen Spout reviewers is that when they all think it’s a bad movie, you know you’ve got a bad movie. HairyLime is still probably trying to watch the movie a half hour at a time before he gives up caring about what happens to the characters. As BigJeffLebowski said, the film does “plumb the depths of depravity,” but it’s not clear what the message is. It struck Strangeframe the same way: “Why make this film?” If you are lucky enough to get the DVD in a jacket, the director Asia Argento explains. While we must always take writers’ and directors’ claim with a grain of salt, she says The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is “a testament to the immutable and invincible bond of love between mother and child.” But that bond may better be described as inscrutable or unfathomable, for, as TheWorkingDead asks, Why does Sarah want ... " [More]

The Heart is Deceitful Above Al ...
by TheWorkingDead in TheWorkingDead Blog

lost interest.

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"It was with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that I put this weeks screener, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, into my DVD player and hit 'play.' My trepidation came from a few sources; since having a daughter three years ago, and because of my own experiences with an abusive step-dad, I find movies with child abuse difficult to watch. I had heard much about the extreme depths that this film goes to, had heard quite a bit about the source material, and was a bit nervous about how I would react to something that usually affects me so viscerally. On the flipside of that, I was also a bit nervous about the fact that Asia Argento had directed it. Argento's only previous full-length directorial effort was the vaguely autobiographical 'Scarlet Diva,' a film which promised the same soul-searing depths of raw, nasty emotion, yet delivered only mind(and ass) numbing boredom. Still, on the strength of that film, some shorts, and maybe her father's reputa ... " [More]

A Voyeuristic Car Wreck
by Demndiary in Demndiary Blog

is neutral about it.

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"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 agai ... " [More]

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