The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

41% of critics liked it
(49 reviews)
70% of users liked it
(9,089 ratings)

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… More 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, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 37 min.
Directed By: Asia Argento
Written By: Asia Argento, Alessandro Magania
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Oct 8, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Jun 6, 2006
Studio: Palm Pictures

Critic Reviews

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Reeks of a project desperate for edgy credibility.
Tamara Straus, San Francisco Chronicle
Now the fabricated story of a boyhood that included abandonment, rape and near constant fear and humiliation is a movie. The result is unwatchable.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Vile beyond redemption.
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
It's a taxing bit of exploitation, which, although you're glad to know it's a work of fiction, doesn't exactly make a case for itself as art.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
There is no redemption, no surcease, and as the film ends the barbarity continues. This film made me intensely uncomfortable, but that was its intention.
Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune
At best, this film raises an all-too-relevant question: Are true-life stories interesting because they're true? Or because they're interesting? At worst, it raises a different question: What if they're neither true nor interesting?
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Marks [Asia Argento] as a far more adventurous and even risk-addicted filmmaker than her famous father Dario.
Sky Hirschkron, Stylus Magazine
[The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things] has a deceptively desultory structure where no moral system or 'new daddy' seems to hold much water upon introduction, but each accumulates ideas which make an atavistic reappearance at the most inopportune of tim
Staci Layne Wilson, Buzzine Magazine
The subject matter might be quite disturbing to some, but for those who don't mind a little child-rape with their crack-smoking, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is well worth a look.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
To appreciate or even tolerate the film, you must separate yourself from the characters and the material. What's unfortunate is that the movie is too well made to let you do just that.
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
Argento's film is arguably exploitative, but its real-life horrors are effectively authentic.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
... shapeless, excessively lurid and often unpleasant, with Argento shamelessly vamping the white-trash junkie mother and truck-stop hooker.
Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics
JT LeRoy may be a scam, but Argento's scalding treatment of adults behaving badly is as real as cold French fries in a West Virginia truck stop.
, Empire Magazine
Trying a bit too hard to be a modern cult classic, but it's clear that Argento's heart is in the right place.
Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News
I don't know if the movie follows the book closely, but if it does, you kind of have to wonder how Leroy or Albert or whoever it was made such a splash in the first place.
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
[H]as a sucker-punch power more potent that what most movies specifically designed as 'horror' can muster...
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
[Argento's] fast-moving, devil-may-care filmmaking keeps The Heart Is Deceitful dangling just above its relentlessly harrowing subject matter.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
The story conveys so much emotion that I found myself wanting to yell at the screen, "Leave that boy alone!"
Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
Argento has made a ferocious film including her own committed performance, but like her character, she loses control in the final goings.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Luke B

Asia Argento presents a bleak, disturbing and horrific film. Argento refuses to undermine the story by offering no final solution. The films main purpose is to make the audience feel very uncomfortable. Problems like child abuse are easy to put aside as coverage of real life events… More
Asia Argento presents a bleak, disturbing and horrific film. Argento refuses to undermine the story by offering no final solution. The films main purpose is to make the audience feel very uncomfortable. Problems like child abuse are easy to put aside as coverage of real life events must always be handled with tact. Argento goes for a more direct approach. Argento and the boys all give sterling performances, and are aided by a never-ending stream of boyfriends from Manson-Renner. The Sprouse boys have certainly come along way and their performances are intune with each other. Wonderful, but not light, stuff.
Nicki M

This movie was excellent - extremely disturbing and certainly wouldn't be to everyone's taste. Jimmy Bennett is excellent as a little boy in foster care who's drugged up, hopeless, too awful for words mother comes back to claim him. What follows is so horrific that it… More
This movie was excellent - extremely disturbing and certainly wouldn't be to everyone's taste. Jimmy Bennett is excellent as a little boy in foster care who's drugged up, hopeless, too awful for words mother comes back to claim him. What follows is so horrific that it came as quite a relief to do a bit more research and discover the "true story" was in fact a hoax, but all the same, sure there are plenty of people out there this type of crap does happen to, and this was so well done. It has a few cameo appearances in it by various people such as Michael Pitt, Winona Ryder and Marilyn Manson - none of them are in it for more than a few minutes, so not worth renting just to see any of those if you are a fan. I was impressed with Winona's appearance though, it was darkly funny and actually nearly didn't recognise her.
Dean M

Really strange and awuflly true story of a poor innocent little boy's life turned hell while he spent with his drug-addicted hooker mother. I felt so sorry for a little boy. And actress-director-screenwriter Asia Argento who plays as a mother looks like a wild Courteney Love in… More
Really strange and awuflly true story of a poor innocent little boy's life turned hell while he spent with his drug-addicted hooker mother. I felt so sorry for a little boy. And actress-director-screenwriter Asia Argento who plays as a mother looks like a wild Courteney Love in this film.
vieras e

Dis-tur-bing.
Aaron N

Movies I never want to see again. An hour and forty minutes of a child being abused by his drug addicted mother. It's just very sad and a little scary if anything. You can say that there is good acting here, but the movie is too damn bleak, and not well in getting anything… More
Movies I never want to see again. An hour and forty minutes of a child being abused by his drug addicted mother. It's just very sad and a little scary if anything. You can say that there is good acting here, but the movie is too damn bleak, and not well in getting anything across that is worthwhile.
William G

Depiction of child neglect is exceedingly unpleasant and downright petty.