Jumbled 'Hearts' plot runs dumb
By JILLIAN DEPAUL
Scene Movie Critic
The new mystery-drama "Random Hearts" stars Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas as two people who, after losing their spouses in an airplane crash, discover that the deceased were having an affair with one another. This plot point is revealed within the first 30 minutes of this unnecessarily long movie (2 1/2 hours feeling more like 10 hours).
One would expect the mystery part of this mystery-drama to end there, and the drama to kick in, but inexplicably, Dutch (Harrison Ford) continues to search for clues about the foregone conclusion throughout the movie. Perhaps he is searching for an excuse as to why this movie subjects audiences to its own confused and belabored existence. But whatever the reason may be, it is tough to make people care about it for very long, especially since the characters in the movie are unoriginal, and the plot meanders aimlessly and awkwardly.
Ford is Billy Van Den Broeck, "Dutch," a sergeant in the Washington D.C. Internal Affairs division, and Kristin Scott Thomas is Kay Spencer-Chandler, a New Hampshire Congresswoman and mother of a 15-year-old daughter. The film is directed by Sydney Pollack, the experienced and successful director of such American classics as "The Way We Were," "Out of Africa" and "Tootsie." It is a shame that the collaboration of three of the classiest talents in Hollywood yields such a disappointing result, especially since some potential for an excellent movie can be detected in the ruins.
Dutch and Kay meet when it is discovered that his wife and her husband were traveling together under the pretense of being a married couple. What could be an interesting storyline is spoiled through lack of focus and misdirection, and the characters are so weighed down by random distractions that they have no opportunity to develop any depth.
Harrison Ford's character is strapped with the maniacal obsession of finding out every last detail of his beloved wife's adulterous actions, not to mention a meaningless subplot about an Internal Affairs investigation. It is unfathomable why this aspect of the film made it past the editing stages, except for the purpose of converging the two storylines in order to, at long last, bring about the ending of the film, which was going nowhere and hobbling there.
Thomas' character Kay Chandler, on the other hand, is so wrapped up in preserving her public image and nobly protecting her teenage daughter that her character chooses never to deal with either her husband's death nor the fact that he was having an affair. When Dutch approaches her about their spouses' affair, his quest for the truth at all costs clashes with her determination to put these events behind her and move on. These two are not exactly a match made in heaven.
In all fairness, Dutch's marriage seemed to be a loving marriage, and it came as quite a shock to him when he found out that his wife was lying to him, while Chandler's marriage seemed to be merely for show, since Kay was not extremely surprised that her husband was two-timing her.
This may help to explain the two drastically different reactions to similar situations. It does not explain, though, the mysterious attraction between the two of them, which results in one of the most preposterous physical fighting/make-out session in a car scenes that has ever been put on film. These scenes should really not be allowed in movies anymore — they are sending a bad vibe to the "parking" youth of America.
Surprisingly enough, once these two characters are stripped of their badges and campaigns, they turn out to be likable people who actually have some decent chemistry between them. The romance that develops between them when they are alone together, although unlikely, is somewhat sweet. Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough scenes with just the two of these characters, away from their worldly distractions, and by the time the film gets to them, half the audience is lost or asleep.
The bottom line is that despite a decent amount of potential, "Random Hearts" crashes and burns.
2 1/2 shamrocks out of five
All Scene Stories for Thursday, October 14, 1999
