The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

...The Heart Is Deceitful has a daring that's hard to dismiss, even when it only amounts to Argento shamelessly getting off on human rot.

...Heart does successfully match the spare, lyrical quality of the prose, and the naturalistic performances (most impressively the three child actors) give it an authentic feel.

The cruelty of child abuse exists. It is a legitimate subject for a film. In this film, there is nothing else.

...Argento has managed to make a film of artistic and emotional merit.

The suspension of disbelief required for this actor-switching suggests the film’s interest in how fantasy works, as a means to survive unbearable pain as well as a means to sell an idea.