Random Hearts (1999)

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers (WGA):

Warren Adler (novel)
Darryl Ponicsan (adaptation)

Release Date:

8 October 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

In a perfect world...they never would have met.

Plot:

After the death of their loved ones in a tragic plane crash 'Harrison Ford' and Kristin Scott Thomas find...

Plot Keywords:

Box Office Flop | Gunfight | Lost Love | Sexuality | Corruption

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Sergeant William 'Dutch' Van Den Broeck
Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Kay Chandler
Charles S. Dutton	...	Alcee
Bonnie Hunt	...	Wendy Judd
Dennis Haysbert	...	Detective George Beaufort
Sydney Pollack	...	Carl Broman
Richard Jenkins	...	Truman Trainor
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Dick Montoya
Susanna Thompson	...	Peyton Van Den Broeck
Peter Coyote	...	Cullen Chandler
Dylan Baker	...	Richard Judd
Lynne Thigpen	...	Phyllis Bonaparte
Susan Floyd	...	Molly Roll
Bill Cobbs	...	Marvin
Kate Mara	...	Jessica Chandler

MPAA:

Rated R for brief violence, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | South Korea:18 | USA:R (certificate #36468) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Manitoba) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Malaysia:18SX | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:6 | Mexico:B | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Harrison Ford said he would never work with Sydney Pollack again after the film flopped, artistically and commercially.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dutch visits Kay in her hotel room, the door opens to the inside right. When Dutch is about to leave the door suddenly opens to the inside left.

Quotes:

Phyllis Bonaparte: I really don't think you should be alone right now.
Dutch Van Den Broeck: Oh, yeah? I was alone before you got here.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Game K N B: (2007-03-15)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Feliz

Yawn Down '99

The concept of two people (internal affairs detective Harrison Ford and US Representative Kristen Scott Thomas) with nothing in common but their respective cheating spouses having just died in the crash of an airliner, and the two strangers being forced to deal with the emotional and physical wreckage, holds about twenty minutes worth of interest in Sydney Pollack's Random Hearts, a 133 minute yawn fest best viewed on TNT (in order to avoid the cost of a rental). This is an amazingly dull movie.

I have admired much of Pollack's work (and he is an engaging character actor whose performance in Tootsie was both pleasing and funny), but Random Hearts is easily one of the dullest pieces of film making I've ever dozed through. There is quite simply nothing to hold your interest, not even a lame side story of Harrison Ford trying to prosecute a corrupt cop. There's no intellectual or sexual tension, no intense interest in finding out the details of the spouses' relationship, and I defy you to care whether or not Ford and Thomas get past their grieving to become a couple.

It's all so forced and TVish that I'm not sure why I stuck with it to the ending credits.

This is the sort of expensive, glossy junk that talented actors and directors sometimes put out there to suck us in and make for themselves some quick cash.

I think it would have been more merciful if the film stock had crashed in the Potomac with the cheating spouses.