Random Hearts is a film I’d wanted to see for a long time, largely I suppose because I like Harrison Ford but also because it looked like an interesting premise and some strange part of me wondered if it would be anything like the old classic “Random Harvest” (an excellent 1942 film starring Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson). I know, it’s just a similar name, that’s not reason enough for me to believe there might be anything similar about the films. I did say it was a strange part of me that thought it.

”From the Academy Award-winning producer and Director Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa – Best Picture, 1986) comes this powerful thriller with a star-studded cast.” Well, that’s what the blurb says, but don’t believe it. This is a films that initially promises much but soon becomes tiresome and really drags for most of its 133 minutes. It starts off promisingly enough with two people’s lives being forever changed by a tragic event – an air crash that kills the spouses of Police Sergeant “Dutch” Van Den Broeck (Harrison Ford) and Congresswoman Kay Chandler (Kristen Scott Thomas). This causes their chance meeting, and as they probe into events surrounding the crash, it seems that there is more going on than meets the eye.

Unfortunately, that’s where it all starts falling apart. After the initial discovery of what is fairly obvious about the “more than meets the eye” aspect, that’s it – there really isn’t any more than meets the eye. This makes the subsequent efforts by the main protagonists to find this elusive something that’s not there rather frustrating and eventually pointless. It doesn’t help matters either that neither of the main sub-plots – Dutch trying to solve – or rather, nail a case he’s already solved with had evidence, and Kay fighting an election battle against someone with less appeal but far more money – don’t really seem to go anywhere much either. The whole point of the film is the exploration of two people’s grief and how they get over it, but he film initially seems to offer so much more – a major conspiracy theory seems almost certain – and delivers nothing. They a forced to “confront some disturbing and shocking truths about their spouses” – in fact there really is only one shocking truth, which in retrospect wasn’t even a shock to one of them – and “unlock the mystery that threatens to destroy them” – er… what mystery? There isn’t one…

Now this sort of character study can indeed work well, but much as I like Harrison Ford, he’s really an action movie guy more than anything. In Random Hearts he seldom changes expression unless he’s angry (which is a good portion of the time), and Kirsten Scott Thomas hardly dazzles with her acting in this either. Much of the supporting cast seem to be wondering what on earth they’re doing in this film with performances that range from bored to preposterously over the top. It is somewhat a case of the film being marketed wrongly, but that aside the characters aren’t interesting enough or even sympathetic enough for you to really care. Illogical and irrational actions by the main characters made it even less believable.

Good production, decent music, a few moments of genuine humour (and even fewer moments of genuine tension) are the only things that save this from being a one-star film… but only just. Not many films have me yawning as much as this one did.

So, all in all, a thoroughly disappointing film. Of course, if I’d consulted the review here on Epinions (or anywhere else, for that matter) beforehand I would probably have avoided this film. But there you go, you live, you learn. If you haven’t seen this yet, learn from my mistake and stay away from it.


Other Information

Rated R for brief violence, sexuality and language. (15 in the UK)

Based on a novel by Warren Adler
Studio: Columbia Pictures


More Typical Harrison Ford Vehicles

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

and a more recent one - Firewall

Our old friend Harrison has, in fact, starred in many of my Top Ten Action / Adventure Movies (of which there are, of course, far more than ten…)


Kirsten Scott Thomas was also inGosford Park



Recommended: No