Rating: 
Summary: Surprising Delight
Review: When I rented this, I didn't really expect to enjoy it all that much. However, I watched it and found it really endearing. In all fairness, some of the plots are much more entertaining than others in this film. The most entertaining is between Ryan Phillipe and Angelina Jolie. The romance between them is incredibly jaded and innocent all in the same instant. There are some incredibly emotional and well acted scenes between them that are incredibly endearing. The movie does have its weaker elements, but all in all, it has a strong plotline. All of the characters eventually become intertwined at the end for what is a charming ending to an extremely entertaining movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Calculated Artificiality
Review: Playing by Heart is the type of film I love to hate. The sub- Woody Allen, sub-Robert Altman schmaltzy ensemble dramas seem to drive me up the wall. Recently I saw the abysmal Miami Rhapsody, and that piece of horse dung was like a big fat fly on hot day that just won't go away. Playing by Heart is arguably just as shallow, but between the flagrantly fake sounding dialogue beautiful moments of truth shine through. The film chronicles several dueling couples related in one way or another to Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands who are about to celebrate their 40th wedding aniversary. While they argue over an affair Connery almost had 25 years ago, their three daughters Gillian Anderson (cynical, heartbroken), Angelina Jolie(club kid, romantic) and Madeline Stowe(cheating wife) all try to deal with life and love in Los Angelos. Out of these storylines the one involving Angelina Jolie and Ryan Philliepe is the most touching. Their confusion, heartbreak and affection is so well acted that it makes the rest of the film pale in comparison. Elsewhere the film is a calculated series of scenes that seem to be written by a second year Physcology student and sound staright out of a self-help book, but every once in a while we get a standout scene. Dennis Quaid's scene in a gay bar where he tries to convince a drag queen that he is gay just to prove himself a man with "imagination" is uproarious. A subplot with Ellen Burnstyn and Jay Mohr as her son dying of Aids doesn't quite work because we don't know these people and watching such intimate moment is embarrassing rather moving. Infact an indepth critical analysis of the film will only reveal how shallow it is. And any further introspection about the film will force me to trash it. Its a credit to the film that you enjoy it too much to be able to do that. Although the film was shot by legendarry cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond it is technically unremarkable. Paradoxically watching the film is quite a pleasant experience. The film's best scene take place between Jolie and Phillipe inside one of those new VW Beatles which is a car with an average engine, average performance and a bloated price. But people continue to lap it up anyway because its cute and makes them feel good. A lot like Playing By Heart then.
Rating: 
Summary: A waste
Review: A good cast in a waste of a story. Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands, Jon Stewart and Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillipe and Angelina Jolie, Anthony Edwards and Madeline Stowe are all couples with their own stories, Jay Mohr is a dying son and Ellen Burstyn is his mother, and Dennis Quaid is ?. These characters and their stories all come together, but it takes so long to get to the narrative's ending that I didn't care less what happened to anybody. Stewart and Anderson are bright spots, and Jolie is promising. Mostly though, a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Great, feel good love story
Review: I thought this was an excellent movie. I had seen previews for it before but hadn't really heard much about it. It is definitely a chick flick so don't let the fact that it has Sean Connery fool you. It is about different people and their love lives. The character development is wonderful and the acting superb. The story revolves aroung four seemingly unrelated couples all in various stages of their lives and relationships. Almost anyone can relate to at least one of the characters in the movie, as people struggle with death, illness, and love. My only complaint with the movie was that when the movie was over I wanted it to keep going. The characters entice you into the story and you want to keep watching to see how things work out. Overall it is a great movie that will make you smile, and definitely worth renting.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT film, shoddy disc production.
Review: I remember when this film came out in the theatres, I was pretty determined (after seeing the movie poster, and thus, the cast) to see it. This was not an easy feat when you consider that in all of Phoenix (A reasonably large metropolitan area), only a single theatre showed this film. This didn't make sense to me, considering I saw the trailer as well as the poster in a very high-class first run theatre here in town. It still doesn't make sense to me and neither does the treatment of this film on DVD. I have, at this point, shown the film to many, many people and I haven't found someone yet who does not like it, and yet the DVD itself is a movie only disc. We all know that Miramax is capable of producing wonderful DVDs (e.g. Good will hunting: SE), and though this film didn't pull in nearly the gross that Good will Hunting pulled in, neither did Mallrats. Despite Mallrats' terrible theatre performace, Gramercy decided to revisit the DVD with a special edition and it sold wonderfully. Bottom line: This is an absolutely wonderful film with next to ZERO extras. Pick it up if you love this film, but the VHS version might be the better one for the money. And a note to Miramax: A good percentage of the time, there is a really good algebraic formula when it comes to DVD. That is: Excellent film + Lots of extras = Disc sales.
Rating: 
Summary: Gillian Anderson was excellent!
Review: This was an excellent movie full of award winning actors. I am a huge fan of Gillian Anderson and she did a wonderful job playing the part of Meredith. They came up with the perfect actors to play the parts. They did a wonderful job casting. This is a wonderful movie for people to see if you like comedies and dramas. Especially if you like most of the actors that play in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: An optimistic, wonderful story about love's different faces.
Review: I went to see this movie with a friend. We hadn't heard anything about it, but thought that a movie with Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Madeleine Stowe and Gilian Anderson had to be worth spending a couple of hours to watch. It was! It doesn't make you laugh out loud, but it makes your heart smile, while your eyes cry. It shows love's many different faces, and it does it so persuasive that you walk out of the theatre wanting to continue to be in the world where we meet Rowlands and Connery, an old married couple that necause of his brain-tumour have to discuss the infidelity from 20 years ago. Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Edwards who are having a relationship even though they are both married. She with a man that has become more of a roommate than a husband, but he loves his wife. Dennis Quaid, who is acting in bars. He tells the most amazing stories to be able to convince his wife that he has imagination. Jay Mohr and Ellen Burstyn, the mother and son, who after many years of lying and hiding their true identities have to start from scratch, because he is gay and is dying from Aids. Gillian Anderson and Jon Steward are dating. She has been burned in the past and is afraid of letting him in.He is looking for the woman he can have a relationship with and not just date. All of the above play wonderfully, but the most touching story is the one about Angelina Jolie and Ryan Phillippe. She doesn't seem to have any difficulties with saying 20 things in one sentence. He hardly says anything. She wants him, but he doesn't date. When you hear the reason why, it makes you want to cry. Phillippe shows a talent that I didn't know he possesed and Jolie is lovely and expresses so much life into every scene. If you want to see a movie that makes you cry, even though you end up with smiling, then you ought to see "Playing By Heart" or "Dancing About Architecture" as the first and the proper title was. It's wonderful and it makes you believe in love.
Rating:
Summary: Surprising!
Review: This was a great movie! The first 40 minutes are a little boring, but then new twists and turns are added in every scene. The actors and actresses are also great in this movie, especially Angelina Jolie, Ryan Phillippe, and Gillian Anderson. Jolie does an excellent job portraying a twenty-something club-hopper with a wild personality, Phillipe does one of his best performances yet as a troubled, depressed guy whose girlfriend recently died, and Anderson portrays a play director who's cautious about sharing her heart. The other actors and actresses were equally good. You should definitely see this movie!
Rating:
Summary: A Must-See!
Review: I LOVED this movie! It is such a touching, compelling collection of stories. I found the performances utterly believable. I thought noone stood out above anyone else in terms of acting, which is quite unusual in a movie. If I had to pick out particularly great performances, I would say Gillian Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Dennis Quaid were the three who stood out, but that's not to say the others weren't brilliant. I loved the end - it was totally inexpected. I never expected the characters to link at all with each other, and it made so much sense when they did! See this if you want an intelligent, entertaining movie which will make you laugh and cry from moment to moment.
Rating:
Summary: Playing by Heart
Review: This movie follows the stories of 3 sisters and their private romantic lives. One sister (Madeline Stowe) is married and gets her kicks out of sleeping around. This section of the film bothered me, that character was so awful, but it didn't ruin the film. Gillian Anderson (of XFiles) did a wonderful job as a young woman whose been hurt and disappointed all her life by men and is afraid to trust her new love. The third sister and my very favorite storyline was played by Angelina Jolie. She is a total whacked out wild party girl who falls in deep love with Ryan Phillipe (Cruel Intentions). Their storyline brought me to tears, I've never seen a movie deal with this kind of content, but I can't say what it is, I don't want to give it away. The chemistry these two had was phenomenal. Please listen and don't let this movie pass you by!
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