Random Hearts

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies of the Year
Review: As both a Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas fan, I loved and purchased "Random Hearts." As the tag-line says, "In a perfect world...they would have never met."

Dutch Vandenbrock (Ford) and Kay Chandler (Scott Thomas) are brought together by tragic fate; losing their spouses in a plane crash. Their pain is deepened when it is revealed their spouses were having an affair together.

He's a cop obsessed with finding the truth and she's a Congresswoman who represses her feelings.

Without giving the end away, I liked it because it was not predictable. I thought it was very well acted, directed, and written.

This is the first movie I have seen with Kristin Scott Thomas and I am very impressed. She is classy and an outstanding actress. I have since purchased "The English Patient", "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "The Horse Whisperer." With co-stars such as Ralph Fiennes, Robert Redford, Hugh Grant, and Harrison Ford--she's got the charisma and talent, along with her co-stars, to make any movie an excellent one.

Rating:
Summary: Underrated, Misunderstood
Review: I love to watch both Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas in feature movies. So when I found out they would be in a movie together, I thought it would be fantastic. While I wasn't jumping for joy in the aisle at the movie theater, I did still like the film. It's the kind of movie that you have to see more than once to really appreciate. You have to give both of these actors credit. Both of them did a great job with the material they had to work with. Harrison Ford never seems to be afraid of being disliked as a main character. I particularly enjoyed the way his character and Kristin's approoach the same situation with different emotions for thier grieving process. It just goes to show that people really do grieve in different ways, not all of them are very obvious. Like Kristin Scott Thomas' character. Kristen always seems to play the repressed or emotionally complex characters the best. She says one thing through dialouge, but tells you how she really feels with her eyes and body language. Now that's a great actress! The whole time she's telling Dutch that she's "done with them", she's really saying that she just doesn't want to grieve in the same painful public way that he is. It fits the character since Kay is supposed to be this public figure that can't show her real emotions on the surface, lest she cause a political scandal. Finally, I really think Syndey Pollack didn't take advantage of the editing and soundtrack. My biggest complaint is with the soundtrack. David Grusin was used throughout most of the film. While I generally like Dave Grusin as a jazz artist, his soundtrack recordings have not been the best. I mean, I loved the music on its own. But in my opinion, he set the mood of the film. He also did the soundtrack for "The Fabulous Baker Boys", which I also liked. But he set a depressing mood for that film also. But then again, both movies dealt with depressing subject matter. So what do we expect? I think that mainstream America is way too concerned with explosions and a WWF mentality when it comes to movies nowadays. Everything is so emotionally shallow, or it's just a grossed-out movie that's supposed to pass for comedy. I'm almost too afraid to waste my time any more. Everything is so fake! I think people don't want anything that's close to real life anymore, like this underrated, unappreciated movie. Everytime I see it, I like it more and more. It's better than the alternative out there!

Rating:
Summary: An under-appreciated gem
Review: I loved this movie with its reflective ambience. The music was beautiful, the acting excellent, and I appreciate its subtleties more each time I watch it.

To Harrison, Kristen, and Sidney: ignore the jaded critics and impatient whiners clamoring for their next adrenaline fix - you have produced a marvelous work.
Unfortunately, the box-office scorecard ($) rules when it comes to sequels.

(I own the DVD and intend to buy the soundtrack CD)

Rating:
Summary: Ford Scores in Romantic Drama
Review: Random Hearts will get mixed reviews from nearly everyone who watches it...While a romance is the core of the film, it isn't the focus of much of the story; most of the film involves Harrison Ford, as a police detective, trying to juggle an investigation he's running on a crooked cop, while putting together the pieces of his wife's affair with a politician's husband, which comes to light after the couple are killed in a plane crash. While the film tends to drag, and never quite meshes together, Ford's performance is one of the finest of his career. With his patented 'hang-dog' expression, his spikey gray hair, and his increasing sense of bewilderment over the failure of his 'perfect' marriage, he delivers a beautifully defined portrayal of a man cut adrift, and was certainly worthy of Oscar consideration.

As the other betrayed spouse, Kristen Scott Thomas is less successful, partially because she never seems as romantcally involved with her husband (Peter Cayote), to begin with. She struggles with a role that has far less emotional depth than she had in 'The Horse Whisperer', and ultimately, she falls back on mannerisms to fill in what the script lacks. There isn't a lot of chemistry between the leads, either; a scene in her car, when she and Ford explosively embrace, is the only sexually-charged scene they share; their subsequent love scenes seems flat, and by-the-numbers, which strains the credibility of their attraction.

In supporting roles, director Sidney Pollack, Charles Dutton, and Bonnie Hunt are very good; Hunt's restaurant scene with Thomas, when she acknowledges her affair with the husband, is a high point in the film.

While Random Hearts will not be everyone's 'cup of tea', if you're a Harrison Ford fan, this film should definitely be in your collection!

Rating:
Summary: Random Hearts
Review: I like this movie. I don't care much about what the critics said about it, nor about its failure to top box office records. I found this movie a psychologically intense drama, and I think acting was very good. Ford portrayed a clearly distraught and somewhat depressed and distracted man who lost his wife in plane crush, and who find out that his wife was cheating on him. He comes in contact with another "survivor," a Congresswoman who lost her husband in the same plane crush. A somewhat unlikely romance develops, while Ford's character continues to be haunted by his wife's betrayal. The subplot, involving a corrupt cop and murder, could be improved--it almost gets in the way of the main storyline. But if you can get beyond this, you will enjoy the movie.

If you are into non-stop action, special effects pictures, this one is not for you. But if you can enjoy a mature film with a real plot, you will do well to see "Random Hearts."

Rating:
Summary: Good Job, Harrison et al!
Review: Harrison Ford was doing his job, as always. He is a perfectionist. His job in this movie was to portray a character who had loved his wife, was betrayed, and lost her. He played his part to perfection as he always does. If he seemed cold, yet emotional at times with tears in his eyes, he showed the real depth of those emotions. This was his job to appear that way!

I recall reading a review of his performance in "Sabrina" - was said to have been 'cold, tired, unemotional, sick', etc. Again, this was HIS JOB. The script was written thusly - he was SUPPOSED to play a role showing himself all these things, and he did a superb job at it!

As for the plot in Random Hearts, some reviewer complained about the various sub-plots. Doesn't every movie and TV show these days have several plots running at the same time? Confusing, to say the least, but it does make you pay attention! As another reviewer mentioned, "watch his eyes and listen to his voice." This is one great actor! He can say more in one scene with his eyes, hands, and that great grin than many other actors today can portray during a whole movie.

We rented this movie last week-end and watched it three times. I own 25 of HF's videos, of which my husband and I watch one at least 5 times a week (sometimes 7). (We do not go to the theater). As soon as the price comes down, we will add it to our collection. In the meantime, will rent it again.

I agree with Mr. Burgraff of North Myrtle Beach, SC, who wrote that "this was worthy of an Oscar consideration." As someone else wrote in a review, "this is definitely not suited for everyone's taste." Then, again, what is?

Please, see this movie, pay attention, and enjoy it as much as we did!

Thanks to a great cast for a great movie!

Rating:
Summary: Character study in understated, Eastern European tradition
Review: Hardly the stuff of a typical Harrison Ford movie, this fascinating study in the nature of love will leave many cold. The essential problem that many have with the film is not that it's poorly written, directed, or acted, but that it has a very limited audience. It's definitely NOT a first date movie, because the central theme of the film is that you can't trust your partners. It's not an action movie so it's not for those seeking escapism. And it's not a comedy so it's hardly the kinda movie that a large group of friends would go see. It's the kind of movie you pop into the DVD player when you're in the mood to read a good book, but your eyes just won't focus on the page.

Yet even if it's a film that's not particularly well-suited to everyone's tastes, it's still a great film. This is a Vaclav Havel-esque study in the nature of betrayal, the power of honesty, and the need for other people to help us through personal crises.

The acting is powerful because of its understatedness.

Kristin Scott Thomas perfectly navigates the role of a congresswoman who can't ever be caught on-the-record saying anything which might be misconstrued, and who, at the same time, probably is as okay as she keeps saying with just letting go of her adulterous husband. Her perturbation with Ford's relentless pursuit of the truth about their spouses' betrayal is genuinely annoying to the congresswoman, and she makes us clearly see the difference between these two characters' reactions to the same basic problem.

Meanwhile, Harrison Ford, though entirely more obsessed with the nature of the adultery, never shows more than controlled emotion about his wife until a late, key sequence. To witness his smoldering pain finally bubble over is so surprisingly powerful that we cry with him.

Equally unique is the ending in which difficult choices are made. For students of film, I think this ending ranks as one of the better in the American cinema. Though the setup for the scene is somewhat politically implausible, given what we know of the campaign Kristin Scott Thomas has run, the payoff finds a way to be at once joyous without being a traditional 'happy ending'.

(For DVD-philes, this title has lots of goodies, including a superb running commentary by director Pollock. This is also the first DVD I've seen where the reason for deleting certain scenes was given by the director. It's fascinating to hear why a scene which was originally thought brilliant made it to the cutting room floor.)

Rating:
Summary: Bad movie night
Review: This is a movie that you can invite your friends over and make fun. I am a HUGE Harrison Ford fan, but he looked ridiculous in this movie. He definitely was not ready for his close up - There is a close up of him that will make you cringe (earring, dyed hair and all), for he looks every bit his 60-something age. - playing a top cop no less. Kristen Scott Thomas seemed to be in another movie, slipping in and out of an English accent. The music was shockingly dopey. There was NO chemistry between them. The plot and subplot tedious. Need I go on! View for the giggles. Gave two stars for this reason alone.

Rating:
Summary: Great Performance By Kristen Scott Thomas
Review: This movie is very dark and unrelentlessly depressing, but it is worth watching one time because of Kristen Scott Thomas's performance. She is great at playing the part of an emotionally repressed widow who has found out her husband was having an affair. I think it is good that a movie has been made that is trying to be different from all the other movies currently being made, but this movie is just not very good. The whole storyline about the dirty cop that Harrison Ford is trying to track down just doesn't blend with the movie, and it made absolutely no sense in the movie. I hope a better movie dealing with an unusual romance will be made.

Rating:
Summary: As good as Ford gets, which is still terrible
Review: It is apparent from the wide range of responses to this movie that its intention and meaning is insufficiently defined. Much of the blame here must go to Harrison Ford and whoever cast him. (He reached his peak in American Graffiti. His career constitutes absolute proof of H. L. Mencken's maxim that no one every went broke underestimating the taste of the American public-and he could have added the American Academy of Motion Pictures.) The central theme of the movie could be uncontrollable suspicion and unhealable scars resulting from the trauma of spousal betrayal OR it could be redemption through a human connection resulting from two people having had a common life-changing experience. Ford, with his two-expression range (dumb and befuddled intermixed with an occasional twisted pseudo-smile), is simply unable to portray either. He never really connects with Thomas (who does her usual superb job), he just doggedly goes about pursuing the details of his dead wife's affair while looking confused and sullen, whereas the movie needed a male lead who could speak clearly without words. It is interesting to speculate on the oucome had Ford's character been played by someone appropriate, say Russell Crow, Brad Pitt, Daniel Day Lewis, or Al Pacino.

Nonetheless, the issue addressed is not superficial and could even be profound. Consequently, I believe that this film had considerable potential, and despite Ford's incompetence, for that reason, has some value.