Empty ‘Hearts’ The Grief Here Is A Poor Script With Miscast Actors Playing Unbelievable Characters
Grief can take many forms, few as ridiculous as those exhibited in “Random Hearts,” Sydney Pollack’s ponderous new drama.
The characters aren’t genuine, and every sentence uttered sounds like Scriptspeak instead of something real. Throw in a trumpet-heavy jazz score and overuse of the color blue, and you’ve got a movie that’s deeply earnest, but has nothing to say.
That’s a shame, because grief is a rich topic. Had Pollack been able to tap into more valid reactions to loss, he might have something other than Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas as an attractive but uneasy couple.
He’s Dutch, a Washington, D.C., Internal Affairs sergeant, and she’s Kay, a New Hampshire congresswoman. They’re thrust together when a plane goes down en route to Miami, with both their spouses aboard. Neither knew their partners were even headed for Florida, so they know something’s up.
Dutch responds, oddly, by emptying all his wife’s leftovers from the fridge and grilling her co-workers at Saks Fifth Avenue. He learns that the deceased pair bought tickets as husband and wife, and tracks down Kay to share the news. As a politician up for re-election, however, she would rather sit in her darkened living room and sip vodka on the rocks.
But he’s so darn tenacious that she winds up following him to Miami to check out the ritzy hotel where the lovebirds intended to stay, and they have a sexual wrestling match in her car upon arriving back home. An even more awkward affair ensues.
In many ways, Dutch is the typical Harrison Ford character: tough, complicated, intense, with a deep inner sense of right and wrong. But Pollack wants him sensitive, too, so one minute he’s pummeling corrupt cops in a bowling alley, the next he’s ensconced in a woodsy cabin lifted straight from an Eddie Bauer catalogue. The actor seems uncomfortable playing this man, and it’s most glaring in his scenes with Scott Thomas.
Nor is the British-born actress well cast. She’s too petite and civilized to be credible as an American politician, and gives Kay a fragile rigidity that’s unappealing either in politics or love. Besides, no congresswoman in her right mind would follow a loose-cannon cop to Miami when she’s trying to cover up her husband’s adultery.
It just doesn’t make sense that these two would be drawn to each other, especially under such morbid circumstances. Yes, they’re vulnerable, their emotions raw, but where is the mourning? Where are the tears? Even though they’ve discovered their partners were having an affair, surely they couldn’t stop caring the next day. Pollack would have us believe that death is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
The movie veers into the characters’ individual lives, with Dutch investigating a gruesome murder and getting slapped with probation for bullying a witness. Mostly irrelevant, it seemed like an excuse to inject a little diversity into the film. Kay is shown interacting with her handlers — one of them portrayed by Pollack — who scramble to contain this public-relations disaster.
Despite its powerful topic, “Random Hearts” is a movie that washes over the viewer like a tepid wave, ending not with a bang, but a whimper.
“Random Hearts” * Locations: Lincoln Heights, River Park Square, Newport, Spokane Valley Mall, Post Falls and Showboat cinemas. * Credits: Directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Sydney Pollack. * Running time: 2:11 * Rating: R
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)