Random Hearts

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas
Director: Sydney Pollack
Genre: Drama
Year: 1999
Rating: 2 / 5

Harrison Ford is my favorite actor ever. I will see any of his films solely because of his presence, whether I have an interest in the story or even the genre as a whole. I have the utmost respect for all of his work, from Star Wars to Witness to Air Force One. That being said, I have never been more bored during one of his films than I was during Random Hearts. This Sydney Pollack "thriller," and I use the term loosely, based on the novel by Warren Adler, is almost as exciting as watching dew collect in the morning. The "thriller" aspects to the film are so far removed from the main plot that they are impossible to take seriously, and the "drama" is so forced that the audience is left asking "Why?" As in, why are these two characters getting together? Or, more appropriately, why did Harrison Ford agree to make this movie?

Dutch Van Den Broeck (Ford) is a police sergeant with DC Metro, living happily with wife Peyton (Susanna Thompson) and perfectly content with his life. One day, after a frisky morning with his wife before her departure for Miami, Van Den Broeck is startled to learn of an airplane crash. It seems that a flight bound for Miami crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all on board. Sparing the reader the details, Van Den Broeck discovers that his wife was not travelling on the plane under her married name, but was apparently travelling as the wife of another passenger. This leads him to the deceased Cullen Chandler (Peter Coyote), or, more aptly, his widow Kay (Kristin Scott Thomas), a New Hampshire politician.

Kay Chandler's life is not nearly as rosy as Van Den Broeck's, as she has suspected her husband's infidelity for some time. While she is not happy to learn that he has passed on, she seems to take it all in stride. With a teenage daughter, she certainly does not want a police officer snooping around, looking for details of an alleged affair between her husband and his wife. Van Den Broeck is persistent, however, and Kay eventually lowers her guard and lets him into her world. While he is obsessed with learning the details of the affair - the how and the why - she merely wants to get on with her life.

Random Hearts fails because the viewer never truly buys in to the budding relationship between Ford's gruff police sergeant and Thomas's business-like politico. It is hard to be sympathetic with either character, as Ford's irrationally refuses to let go of the past, while Thomas's seems so distant and aloof after the death of her philandering husband. The passion and the emotion are forced at all times, though never more so than during a parking lot scene inside of Kay's car. The film's only action results from some sequences involving police corruption, seemingly present only to remind us that Ford's character is a cop. Apparently, his profession is supposed to excuse his obsession for the truth about his wife's affair. Instead, it merely serves as a diversion, and an unfulfilling one at that. Actually that last phrase turns out to be more praise than Random Hearts deserves.

Cast:

Harrison Ford..........	Dutch Van Den Broeck
Kristin Scott Thomas..........	Kay Chandler
Bonnie Hunt..........	Wendy Judd
Charles Dutton..........	Alcee

Certification: Rated R for violence, language, and sexuality.
Running Time: 133 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
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