Miramax Pictures
Written and Directed by: Willard Carroll
Director of Photography: Vilmos Zsigmund, A.S.C.
Starring (in alphabetical order): Gillian Anderson, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Angelina Jolie, Jay Mohr, Ryan Phillippe, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Jon Stewart, Madeleine Stowe . . . among many others.
Playing By Heart is a marvelously funny film about several pairs of people: married couples, newly-mets, a mother and son, sisters, etc. It is also the story of some of the complications in their lives (such as an affair which occured 25 years ago, and a 175 pound Mastiff which insists upon sleeping in its owner's bed -- whether her boyfriend is in it or not) as each faces some significant event in life. But Playing By Heart is also heart-wrenching, for some of these events are imminent or gradual deaths, of which each of the people involved is painfully aware, but with which they nevertheless try to cope.
Reviewing this film is awkward, to say the least, and not just because Miramax has asked reviewers not to reveal the many plot twists of the story -- for it IS, ultimately, a single story. That it is a single story seems incredible because of the Altman-like,"Pulp Fictionesque" number of characters and the many strands of the story, which writer-director Willard Carroll ultimately weaves into an amazingly accomplished tapestry. For example . . .
Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands play Paul and Hannah, a couple who have been married for nearly forty years. She hosts a cooking show; he apparently produces it. He had an affair 25 years ago; she won't let him forget it. Together, they make beautiful comedy.
Gillian Anderson plays the up-tight, love-shy Meredith, who is being courted by the hopelessly romantic and intellectual Trent, played by Jon Stewart. She has issues about her family and her past; she also has an overly-friendly dog named Barley. He faces a potential lawsuit from her because of an accident.
Angelina Jolie is Joan, who has SERIOUS man-trouble; her newest trouble is Keenan (Ryan Phillippe), with whom she is falling in love. Theirs seems a match made in heaven except for a few things: he doesn't drink, but she likes three olives in her martinis and likes the waiter to bring them two at a time; she talks incessantly, but he reveals nothing of himself; she wants to get him into bed, but he "doesn't date."
Jay Mohr plays Mark and Ellen Burstyn plays his mother, who is visiting him in the hospital. He looks as though he has just had the crap beaten out of him; he's actually dying of AIDS; she just learned of it after a long estrangement.
Dennis Quaid is poor Hugh, who stumbles up to a woman at a bar and confesses to having killed his wife and children. At another bar he confesses that he has just lost his job. At a third bar he . . . well, Hugh has a problem or two in his life.
And then there are Gracie and Roger (Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Edwards). They enjoy each other's company . . . but only in hotel rooms. They have some problems, too, you can be sure.
But being sure is not what Carroll wants his audience to be. As the film develops it becomes apparent that there are gaps and flaws in most of the individual characters's stories, until one is left wondering who among the characters (if any) is actually telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Who's really facing death . . . or unemployment . . . or a marital break-up? Carroll's richly textured story is as baffling as any mystery, and even at the end, when most of the connections between the characters have become clear, one still has some lingering doubts, and THAT is a Good Thing, because Playing By Heart leaves its audience thinking and talking among themselves about the film, interacting in a way in which many of the characters in the movie don't, to their own discomfiture.
"Richly textured" is perhaps an understatement in describing Playing By Heart. To cite just one single example of the incredibly subtle nuances captured in the film, consider the scene in which Keenan (who doesn't date, remember) meets another character at the Laemmele Sunset 5 theater on the Sunset Strip. The camera is centered just beyond Ryan Phillippe's right shoulder, at the film schedule board; plainly visible is the title of Dancer, Texas, which starred Phillippe's real-life friend and 54 co-star, Breckin Meyer. The midnight movie being shown is Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the 1994 version, which stars Matthew McConaughey, who co-starred with Ben Affleck in Dazed and Confused and Glory Daze. Most of Ben Affleck's recent movies, such as Shakespeare in Love, have been from Miramax, and most of those have debuted at . . . the Sunset 5 theater. Is this scene an example of Carroll's brilliance at creating subtle in-jokes, or is it an example of the "six degrees of separation" principle? Whichever it is, it works, and works wonderfully, for the characters themselves are, we learn, inter-connected in ways of which most of them are completely unaware, leading to the audience's delight as each new connection is realized.
Almost all of the performances, large and small, in Playing By Heart are uniformly excellent. With this film Gena Rowlands and Gillian Anderson restore the concept of the leading lady to its former dignity and may help to make actresses competitive again with actors on payday. Ellen Burstyn and Jay Mohr's joint performance would wring tears from Jerry Falwell, and Ryan Phillippe will, in this reviewer's opinion, become one of the great leading men of the next century, just as Sean Connery proves his leading man power in this film.
Illustrating the compelling power of Playing By Heart was the uproarious laughter which filled the packed theater where I saw it, and the absolute silence -- utter and eerie -- which prevailed as Keenan finally revealed the dark secret of why he "doesn't date." During one of the crucial scenes between Jay Mohr and Ellen Burstyn no one dropped a pin, but a single slurp of someone's soda revealed how deathly quiet the theater had become as a major plot point unfolded.
After seeing Playing By Heart one can only speculate that it was contractual obligations which forced Miramax to show this movie before the end of 1998, forcing it to compete with their sure-fire Oscar� contender, the aforementioned Shakespeare in Love. With awards balloting still in progress, though, Playing By Heart, if seen by enough voters, may just sweep its way through the awards. It is, in any case a must-see movie, and I give it my highest rating: W8 -- Worth $8.00.