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Heart of the Beholder

Play trailer Poster for Heart of the Beholder R 2005 1h 46m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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83% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
After a family opens the first video store in St. Louis, a corrupt prosecutor backed by religious zealots ruins the business.

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Heart of the Beholder

Critics Reviews

View All (6) Critics Reviews
Film Threat Rated: 3.5/5 Jun 5, 2007 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 3/5 Jan 9, 2006 Full Review Ryan Cracknell Movie Views Clear, to the point but not entirely grabbing. Jul 15, 2005 Full Review Dragan Antulov Draxblog Movie Reviews HEART OF THE BEHOLDER succeeds in telling a compelling story in an entertaining and interesting way Rated: 5/10 Jun 26, 2005 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com an engaging, well-acted, and often delightful little movie Rated: 4/5 Jun 25, 2005 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews A disturbing story that is worth telling. Rated: B Jun 7, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (4) audience reviews
Audience Member Between a 6/10 and 7/10, we are given a disturbing little story that is worth telling. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member best movie drama based on true events, it has hardship, religion, suspense, kidnapping all in wrap in a real life experience Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member  somewhere in this movie is the germ of an absolute classic. The story is particularly appropriate for right now. But there are problems: the budget being the biggest one of all. The script is weak, there are so many contrived moments in it (regardless of whether they reflect the truth of the story or not, they are not presented in any believable way). The direction is also badly flawed; the pacing makes no sense. Worse, the tone drastically changes in the third act, with the movie almost becoming a revenge comedy. The ending feels totally imposed by the need to have some kind of climax just for the sake of it. What this story needed is a writer who explore the various nuances and ambiguous character-relationships, not just of the DA with unsavouries but (if the script is accurate at all) the problematic relationships of the main character. There is so much potential there, it's unbelievable. A better director would have made a longer movie, for one thing, and, provided there was a good script, would have been able to avoid the pacing issues that plague it. It's too bad. Someone could have made an amazing movie out of this story, instead we get something amateur. It tries hard, but that isn't saying much. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A fascinating true story about video store chain owners in the '80s who were terrorized by a religious group when they refused to take "The Last Temptation of Christ" off their store's shelves. Though dark at times, it's still a bit cable-movie-of-the-weekish but overall the film works, entertains and shows the dangers of censorship. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Heart of the Beholder

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis After a family opens the first video store in St. Louis, a corrupt prosecutor backed by religious zealots ruins the business.
Director
Ken Tipton
Producer
Jeanette Volturno, Arnon Manor, Ken Tipton
Screenwriter
Ken Tipton
Production Co
Susan Johnston Casting
Rating
R (Language|Sexual Content)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2017
Runtime
1h 46m
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