Random Hearts (1999)

• Year: 1999
• Released: 08 Oct 1999
• Country: United States
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156934/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/random_hearts
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/random-hearts
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance
• Runtime: 133 min
• Writer: Warren Adler, Darryl Ponicsan, Kurt Luedtke
• Director: Sydney Pollack
• Cast: Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Charles S. Dutton
• Keywords: death, infidelity, politician, airplane crash, death of wife,

	5.3/10
	38/100
	15% – Critics
	24% – Audience

Random Hearts Storyline

The wife of Police Sergeant Dutch Van Den Broek (Harrison Ford) and the husband of U.S. Representative Kay Chandler (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) are killed in a plane crash. Now Dutch discovers some anomalies in what his wife told him before she left, and discovers that she and Chandler’s husband were travelling together. Dutch then goes to Chandler and tells her that he suspects that they were having an affair. He tells her that he wants to know the truth. She tells him that she doesn’t, but she later joins him and they grow close.

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Random Hearts Movie Reviews

A comfort to each other

Sydney Pollack kept a tight directorial rein on his stars and his cast in Random Hearts. As a result you get a romantic film both tender and expressive in their faces. Good thing that Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas have faces that the camera loves.

They are the most unlikeliest of lovers. The only other way that these two would meet is if Washington, DC cop Ford was ever assigned to a security detail Representative Thomas. Unlikely as Ford’s assignment is Internal Affairs. But somewhere their spouses Susanna Thompson and Peter Coyote did meet. In fact they’ve been meeting regularly for some time now.

It all comes to light when the two are killed in a plane crash that goes down in the Potomac River. As one of them is traveling under an assumed name and the other lied about her destination it does take someone with the mind of an investigator to track it down. Depending on your point of view of how fortunate for Ford that he is one.

Both Ford and Thomas are dealing with other issues. Ford and his partner Charles Dutton have just busted Dennis Haysbert, a cop who was shaking down social club operators for protection money. In fact in a very interesting hostage scene Ford puts Haysbert in custody. You have to see the film alone for how he handles that.

As for Thomas she’s facing a multi-millionaire opponent for her seat which is one of the two in New Hampshire. Not really a good time for dirty laundry to be aired. We never see her opponent, but he’s one of those family values types so we know exactly what she can expect.

Still these two become a comfort to each other and soon enough become quite a bit more. How their worlds eventually publicly intersect is for you to see Random Hearts.

In a modern urban setting Random Hearts is a love story, the kind that Hollywood used to do so well. Bid kudos to Sydney Pollack and his stars and cast for delivering on this one.

What’s the point?

Kay (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a political newbie running for office. Her husband is played by Peter Coyote. Dutch (Harrison Ford) is police IA investigator and he thinks his marriage to Peyton (Susanna Thompson) is fine. However Dutch finds that his wife died in a plane crash suspecting that she’s having an affair.

Director Sydney Pollack has made a very undramatic movie. It’s slow moving. The first half of the movie meanders to the point of meaninglessness. When the mystery of their affair start to surface, Dutch goes into mean investigating machine mode. Dutch investigating was interesting for about 10 minutes, but the affair is never allowed to be in doubt. The question becomes where is the mystery. Kay puts it best. They’re gone. There isn’t even a possibility of divorce. So what’s the point of the movie.

I guess the point is for these two leads to work out their anger and their loss together. It is just so slow with the jazzy trumpets and soft piano. Sydney Pollack thinks this is more profound that it actually is. The two leads have no chemistry. Harrison Ford is horribly cold. The romance is nothing more than melodrama. His police investigation is nothing but a sideshow. I would have more respect for the movie if Dutch goes ahead and shoots the suspect. If this movie is about Kay and only about Kay, the story has a little bit of potential. There is a bit more on her side with her daughter and political ramifications.

random lungs

For years it had seemed – to me, at least – that Sydney Pollack and Harrison Ford might have to collaborate on a movie. It resulted that they collaborated on the somewhat weird “Random Hearts”. In the movie, Sgt. Dutch Van Den Broeck’s (Ford) wife and Kay Chandler’s (Kristin Scott Thomas) husband are having an affair and get killed in a plane crash. From there, Ford and Thomas hook up to try and figure out what was going on.

Maybe it’s just that I don’t find anything particularly significant about this sort of idea, or maybe I find it a little jarring to cast men with women half their age, but this is not a movie that I would really recommend. Not a bad movie – “bad” is the word that I apply to junk like “Baryshnya-Krestyanka” and “Everone Says I Love You”; “Plan 9 from Outer Space” is so bad that it’s good – but I think that the movie didn’t go anywhere. Pollack (who has a supporting role), Ford and Thomas have all done much better than this.

Also starring Charles S. Dutton, Bonnie Hunt, Dennis Haysbert, Richard Jenkins (Nate Sr. on “Six Feet Under”), Paul Guilfoyle, Susanna Thompson, Peter Coyote, Kate Mara, Dylan Baker, Lynne Thigpen, Reiko Aylesworth, Edie Falco, and even Alex Trebek in a brief appearance.