Playing by Heart (1998)

Paul (Sean Connery) and Hannah (Gena Rowlands) are doing a TV cooking show as the past comes back to haunt them. Gunshy playwright Meredith (Gillian Anderson) accepts a date from architect Trent (Jon Stewart). Mark (Jay Mohr) is gay and dying of AIDS. His mother Mildred (Ellen Burstyn) comes to his deathbed. Trendy club goer Joan (Angelina Jolie) tries to attract Keenan (Ryan Phillippe). Roger (Anthony Edwards) and Gracie (Madeleine Stowe) are an adulterous couple. Hugh (Dennis Quaid) tells tragic life stories to women (Patricia Clarkson, Kellie Waymire) in bars. The various stories and characters connect as they wind up in one family wedding.Written and directed by Willard Carroll, this is a fragmented movie. There are some great actors working on this film. I really love the wild energy from Angelina Jolie. Some stories are more compelling than others. That's the nature of this kind of movie. It's a constant up and down viewing experience. I'm eager to see a few of the stories, but others drag. A couple of the stories could be cut to make space to expand the other stories. It would also be better for those characters and the emotions to play out more. The connection in the end is nothing but an exercise in writing. With the acting power gathered in this movie, there is bound to be someone in the movie for everybody.

I believe this is the third time I'm watching this movie - haven't seen it in years. If you like movies in the "multiple storyline" form of "Short Cuts" and "Magnolia", where lots of stories are told in parallel and finally meet, then you're gonna love this movie. Unsurprisingly, the highlights of the movie are the scenes with Ellen Burstyn (made me cry more than once) and Gena Rowlands & Sean Connery, but you can't expect less than fantastic actors like these, given a good script. Dennis Quaid is also good in his role. The Angelina Jolie story was OK - Jolie is overacting but she's OK in her role. I would have cut the entire Gillian Anderson story - I don't know if it's the story that's weak or Gillian Anderson's acting (probably the latter), but something doesn't work for me there. Also, Madeleine Stowe is beautiful, but her story is just minor and not very interesting.

No one I know has heard of this movie, and that's a shame. Somewhat. The film's huge cast is similar to the better-known Love Actually, with the eclectic mix of seemingly-unrelated characters who finally congregate together in the end. It's also got a British actor (Sean Connery) to boot, as well as some big stars like Angelina Jolie and surprisingly, Jon Stewart (being a lot more romantic here than on his Daily Show, of course). But Playing by Heart isn't that funny, which may be why it's escaped everyone's ears. It's undoubtedly a well-made film, but it just didn't leave me gushing with praise. The acting was good, and the tribulations and angst the characters felt were real and at times somber (especially the poor man dying of AIDS), but the film left no lasting impression on me. The humor was rare and the drama on the dry, "oh well, too bad" or (in monotone) "wooo, problem solved, happiness for all" side. But then, I'm a finicky watcher and I admit, a borderline pretentious critic. Since I didn't dislike the film, it probably means most people will enjoy or even love it, so I give this a 7/10. Just don't watch it expecting to burst into uproarious laughter or a free flowing sob-fest. You'll most likely chuckle here and there (like when discovering John Stewart's bed buddy) and feel sorry for those afflicted with disease, who, for me, are the only truly touching characters in this not-bad, not-contrived, not-unimpressive film.

Angelina Jolie is good (although she seems older than her boyfriend in the film), and Dennis Quaid nearly walks away with it too - they give the most nuanced performances, i'd say, with a script that skims over the surface of necessity, since there are so many vignettes, not giving anything enough time to develop.the scene when the theatrical director throws her new boyfriend out because she is projecting trouble ahead felt very real - it is a playing out of an instinct that some of us may know, and there are true sparks of humor between them, and it's sexier than any other physical relationship going on - but the drawn-out scenario of some of the others just did not ring true or matter: the older couple are not focussing on what's really troubling them and fill up the time with discussion of an old love affair - totally tedious! and the actors worked hard to make it real. the relationship between the mother and her AIDs afflicted son was well played out - but i felt they had to rush to get it in - but it was affecting and well played, well written. (it felt like stage dialogue which ordinarily i do not like in a film).middling worthwhile to watch in the end, (although i liked the scene of Trent in bed with a huge dog). altogether not very gripping - surprising that so many great actors were in it, and that the film received so much attention.