Random Hearts (1999)

A police sergeant and a congresswoman both lose their spouses in a plane crash, and they soon discover that their spouses were having an affair with each other.

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

Warren Adler (novel), Darryl Ponicsan (adaptation)

Stars:

Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Charles S. Dutton

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harrison Ford	...	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

Storyline

After the death of their loved ones in a tragic plane crash Harrison Ford, a widow & widower Kristin Scott Thomas find keys in the possessions their loved ones left behind. They realize the two had been having an affair and are determined to discover all the details.

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Plot Keywords:

politician | police sergeant | investigation | u.s. congresswoman | policeman | 

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Taglines:

He'll stop at nothing to find the truth.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brief violence, sexuality and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 October 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Random Hearts

Filming Locations:

Manchester Airport, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$64,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,012,585, 10 October 1999

Gross USA:

$31,502,583

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$74,608,570

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Company Medien KG, Mirage Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The names of the main characters in the novel on which "Random Hearts" is based are Edward and Vivien. This was likely changed for the film as Edward and Vivien are well known as the names of the main characters in "Pretty Woman".

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Goofs

When Kay arrives at the cabin, there is a motorcycle parked on her left as she exits her car. When she leaves, that motorcycle has become a large SUV.

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Quotes

Dutch Van Den Broeck: [at Kay's campaign gathering] If you quit, they win. And the crash got us all. Don't let them do that.

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Connections

Referenced in Micmacs (2009)

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Soundtracks

Good Thing
Written and Performed by Patty Larkin
Courtesy of High Street Records, A Unit of The Windham Hill Group

User Reviews

She's through with him! He's through with her! And were through with both of them!

**SPOILERS** Overlong and somewhat confusing drama involving an airplane crash, Southern Airline flight from D.C to Miami, where two of the crash victims were cheating on their spouses.

It's not much later that one of those being cheated on Washington D.C internal affair police Sgt. Dutch Van Den Broeck, Harrison Ford, got wind from her job that his old lady Peyton, Susanna Thompson, was on a flight to Miami to do a fashion shoot for her employer Sacks 5th Av of Washington D.C. Desperately trying to find out if Peyton was on the doomed flight Ducth not only finds out that she was, through a morgue photo at the crash site, but she was using an assumed name! Peyton was using the name of the wife of the person that booked the flight Cullen Chandler, Peter Coyote. Things get even more strange when it's discovered that the late Mr. Chandler's wife, who he's been cheating on, is non other then New Hampshire congresswoman Kay Chandler, Kristin Scott Thomas, who's now in a life and death campaign for reelection!

The movie brings the two, Dutch & Kay, together in finding if in fact it's true that they were being cheated on by their marriage partners. And in the process they end up falling in love with each other! If it was just that the film "Random Hearts" would have made for a pretty good adult love story. Instead by putting into the film murder drug dealing both police corruption and political chicanery the movie at times was almost impossible to follow!

Dutch who should have taken a leave of absent from the D.C Police Department in order for him to overcome his grief goes the exact opposite direction. Instead he goes full blast in busting fellow D.C cop George Beauford, Dennis Haysbert, for drug dealing by him getting, which is very unprofessional on Dutch's part, very personal about it. This not only leads to Dutch's top informant to get murdered but Dutch almost ending up murdered himself! Or at the least losing his job or being put behind bars for taking the law into his own hands! All of this together with Dutch trying to find out if his wife Peyton was untrue to him seemed too much for the poor guy to handle. As for Kay she had far more pressing problems in the fact if her dead husband's infidelity became public it could very well screw her out of a second term in the US Congress!

***SPOILERS*** With the film being much too long, 133 minutes, as well as complicated and confusing you completely lose interest in it at about the one hour mark! It takes a while to realize what exactly Dutch & Kay are so desperately looking for, their cheating partners secret love nest, and when they, independent of each other, finally find it what was the big shocking surprise anyway! It only proved to Dutch & Kay, what we in the audience knew all along, what should have been obvious to them right from the very beginning of the movie!