Random Hearts
USA 1999
Reviewed by Liese Spencer
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
When a plane bound for Miami crashes leaving no survivors, internal-affairs police officer Dutch Van Den Broeck suspects his wife Peyton may have been on board. Although she is not named among the passengers, Dutch knows Peyton took a flight that day to Miami. After some enquiries, Dutch discovers that her "business trip" was fabricated and that she was travelling with another man. Leaving Washington and an investigation into a corrupt cop, Dutch travels to New Hampshire where he confronts Kay Chandler, whose husband Cullen accompanied Peyton on the plane. A congresswoman running for re-election, Kay is reluctant to talk, even when Dutch tells her he is going to visit the hotel the dead couple had booked in Miami.
In Miami, Kay surprises Dutch at the hotel bar and they piece together the couple's affair. Flying home they sit separately, but kiss in the airport car park. Kay decides not to run for re-election but Dutch persuades her against quitting. Dutch goes to his log cabin in the country where Kay joins him for a romantic weekend. Dutch wants them to find the apartment their dead partners used for their affair but Kay resists. They return to their normal lives. When Dutch eventually finds the apartment, he finds Kay already there. They argue. Dutch leaves and is shot by the cop he was investigating. At the hospital Dutch and Kay are reconciled.
Review
When the Zeebrugge ferry went down pathologists identifying the drowned found one body with 12 wallets: a pickpocket. Another victim was discovered to have been leading a double life, with one family in England and another in Holland. Laid bare by untimely death, such subterfuge lends a pathetically personal note to mass disaster, tempers the deifying grief of tragedy with human fallibility. So the idea of following such a story in Random Hearts is an intriguing one. Sydney Pollack's romantic thriller explores what it's like to deal not only with the death of a loved one and the shock of a deceit that can never be explained, argued over or excused, but also how two survivors might seek solace with each other. Sadly, it's neither romantic nor thrilling.
One problem is the ponderous performances given by the two stars. Typecast as the tough but honest cop, `Harrison Ford barely opens his mouth, let alone his heart, so his portrayal of a cuckold has little impact. Instead of a man emotionally disembowelled by doubt, what we see is a sullen detective obsessed with uncovering the banal details of betrayal. Starched, sensible and struggling with an American accent, Kristin Scott Thomas offers little more than cool stoicism. If just one of them had let down their guard and cried, it might have ended the emotional impasse.
All these gloomy ponderings on the nature of love and trust should, of course, be offset by the unlikely affair that blossoms between them. Unfortunately, these two don't even seem to like each other, let alone fall in love. When they return from their mournful sojourn in Miami and fall on each other in the car park, there's a desperate inelegance about their embrace which strikes true. But with no spark the scene plays as slapstick.
Complexly structured and put together with Pollack's usual polish, the film is not without its pleasures. The first hour, in which he intercuts between the four main characters, the inexorable tragedy and its gradual discovery, is stylish and gripping. News bulletins about the crash murmur in the background before Dutch and Kay begin to pay them any attention. As Dutch goes about his doomed enquiries, the objects of his investigation sit side by side, seatbelts fastened and hair floating upwards like seaweed. But despite flashes of bitter brilliance, the film flags desperately in its talk-sodden second half. Certainly, a neat ending in which these two very different characters waltzed off into the sunset would have been wrong. But what we have instead is downright bathetic. It's Christmas. The lovers have been apart for months. Thomas comes out of the airport arrivals gate and Ford is waiting for her. They exchange pleasantries and... she walks away. All that's left for the audience to do is to identify the corpse of a good idea.
Credits
- Producers
- Sydney Pollack
- Marykay Powell
- Screenplay
- Kurt Luedtke
- Based on the novel by Warren Adler
- Adaptation
- Darryl Ponicsan
- Director of Photography
- Philippe Rousselot
- Editor
- William Steinkamp
- Production Designer
- Barbara Ling
- Music
- Dave Grusin
- ©Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co. Medien KG
- Production Companies
- Columbia Pictures presents a Rastar/Mirage Enterprises production
- Executive Producers
- Ronald L. Schwary
- Warren Adler
- Production Co-ordinators
- Melissa Stanley Cohen
- Scott Kordish
- Unit Production Manager
- Richard Baratta
- Location Managers
- Christian von Tippelskirch
- Miami:
- R. Collette Hailey
- Washington DC Unit:
- Michael Dellheim
- Carol Flaisher
- Assistant Directors
- Denis L. Stewart
- Amy Lauritsen
- Shawn Griffith
- Jennifer Truelove
- Mike Salven
- Miami:
- Brian Moon
- Script Supervisor
- Mary A. Kelly
- Casting
- David Rubin
- NY:
- Mikie Heilburn
- Baltimore:
- Pat Moran
- Camera Operators
- Ken Ferris
- Andrew Casey
- Steadicam Operator
- Andrew Casey
- Special Effects
- Jonathan C. Brotherhood
- Art Director
- Chris Shriver
- Set Designer
- Scott Murphy
- Set Decorator
- Susan Bode
- Costume Designer
- Bernie Pollack
- Wardrobe Supervisors
- Robert Moore
- Kate E. Edwards
- Key Wardrobe
- Tim Alberts
- Rose Wells
- Key Make-up
- Naomi Donne
- Key Hair
- Lyndell Quiyou
- Title Design
- Phill Norman and Co.
- Featured Musicians
- Trumpet:
- Terrance Blanchard
- Bass:
- John Patitucci
- Drums:
- Harvey Mason
- Music Editors
- Ted Whitfield
- Stuart Grusin
- Composer's Consultant
- Don Murray
Soundtrack- "The Present" by/performed by Sunny Hilden; "Daddy's Little Girl" by Bobby Burke, Horace Gerlach, performed by The Mills Brothers; "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, performed by Diana Krall; "Feliz" by Gregory Alper, performed by The Alper Quartet; "Killing Me with Kindness" by Marc Ferrari, Brad Bailey, performed by Lorraine Lewis, Marc Ferrari, Brad Bailey; "Good Thing" by/performed by Patty Larkin
- Choreography
- Luis Perez
- Sound Mixer
- Danny Michael
- Re-recording Mixers
- Chris Jenkins
- Ron Bartlett
- Mark Smith
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Scott A. Hecker
- Sound Editors
- Eric A. Norris
- Joseph H. Earle
- Kenneth L. Johnson
- Dialogue Editors
- Gary Lewis
- Ralph H. Osborn III
- Benjamin Beardwood
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Allen Hartz
- Editors:
- David Melhase
- Barbara Issak
- Foley
- Artists:
- Robin Harlan
- Sarah Monat
- Mixer:
- Brian Ruberg
- Editors:
- Chris Flick
- Jeffrey Rosen
- David Horton
- Marine Co-ordinator
- Ransom Walrod
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Mickey Giacomazzi
- Helicopter Pilot
- Camera:
- Robert Zajonc
- Cast
- Harrison Ford
- Sgt Dutch Van Den Broeck, Internal Affairs
- Kristin Scott Thomas
- Kay Chandler
- Charles S. Dutton
- Alcee
- Bonnie Hunt
- Wendy Judd
- Dennis Haysbert
- Detective George Beaufort
- Richard Jenkins
- Truman Trainor
- Paul Guilfoyle
- Dick Montoya
- Susanna Thompson
- Peyton Van Den Broeck
- Dylan Baker
- Richard Judd
- Susan Floyd
- Molly Roll
- Lynne Thigpen
- Phyllis Bonaparte
- Kate Mara
- Jessica Chandler
- Ariana Thomas
- Shyla Mumford
- Bill Cobbs
- Marvin
- Sydney Pollack
- Carl Broman
Peter Coyote- Cullen Chandler
- Nelson Landrieu
- Silvio Coya
- Brooke Smith
- Sarah
- Christina Chang
- Laurie
- Michelle Hurd
- Susan
- Reiko Aylesworth
- Mary Claire Clark
- Ray Anthony Thomas
- Officer Clayton Williams
- Edie Falco
- Janice
- Epatha Merkerson
- Nea S.
- Jack Gilpin
- David Dotson
- Mark Zeisler
- Steven Driker
- John Carter
- Peyton's father
- Davenia McFadden
- Cassie
- Barbara Gulan
- Maureen
- Molly Price
- Alice Beaufort
- Brian Schwary
- Tad Baker
- Priscilla Shanks
- Susan's customer
- Lynette Du Pre
- Nurse Nancy
- Ken Kay
- Peter Suchet
- Susan Hatfield
- Claire Suchet
- Jenna Stern
- Sally Gabriel
- Tom McCarthy
- Dick Shulte
- Jan Austell
- Joe Parella
- Aasif Mandvi
- electronics store salesman
- Todd Malta
- supermarket stockboy
- Jordan Lage
- assistant prosecutor
Judith Knight Young- Clara
- Fenton Lawless
- Officer Lawrence
- Deirdre Lovejoy
- Officer Isabel
- Terry Serpico
- evidence technician
- Liam Craig
- waiter at DC restaurant
- C.S. Lee
- luncheonette counterman
- Ellen Foley
- young woman at fundraiser
- Judy Jamison
- Steven Mark Friedman
- Becky Veduccio
- TV reporters at hospital
- Susan Allenback
- airline spokesperson
- Don Scott
- Dina Napoli
- Tacey Neale
- news anchors
- Will Thomas
- field reporter
- Andy Fowle
- orderly
- Robert Zajonc
- helicopter pilot, camera
- Alan Purwin
- helicopter pilot, TV news
- Roy R. Taylor Jr
- helicopter pilot, WJZ pilot
- [uncredited]
- M. Emmet Walsh
- bartender at Billy's
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Columbia Tristar Films (UK)
- 11,921 feet
- 132 minutes 28 seconds
- Dolby/SDDS
- Colour by
- DeLuxe