Product Details

• Actors: Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Charles S. Dutton, Bonnie Hunt, Dennis Haysbert
• Directors: Sydney Pollack
• Writers: Warren Adler, Darryl Ponicsan, Kurt Luedtke
• Producers: Sydney Pollack, Marykay Powell, Ronald L. Schwary, Warren Adler
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: August 29, 2000
• Run Time: 133 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003OSSM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,678 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Reviled by critics and largely ignored by moviegoers when released in 1999, Random Hearts is a pox on the reputations of Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, and director Sydney Pollack, but it doesn't entirely deserve its lowly fate. The movie's lugubriously paced and its repressed passions are dulled under the weight of relentless melancholy, but Pollack deserves credit for defying the Hollywood Zeitgeist with a mature, substantial film about the power of betrayal to reach beyond the grave.

Ford plays a Washington, D.C. detective; Scott Thomas is a Congresswoman in the midst of a re-election campaign. When their spouses die in a plane crash, the cop is convinced they'd been having an affair, and his obsessive, masochistic quest for the painful truth draws him closer to the Congresswoman despite the mutual risks to their careers and domestic privacy. While she hides behind a façade of denial, his agonized investigation makes him simultaneously unappealing (a risk Ford may have taken as a challenge), sympathetic, and sadly compelling.

Pollack takes his own chances by keeping everything so relentlessly downbeat, but anyone receptive to the story will find that Random Hearts is a subtly rewarding study of tormented adults who've discovered too late the weaknesses of their seemingly stable marriages. It's anything but cheerful, and a subplot involving a corrupt cop (Dennis Haysbert) is a formulaic distraction. But Random Hearts provides welcome relief from dramas that flirt with emotional anguish without delving into its deeper consequences. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

Harrison Ford, a gruff, miserable, and violent Washington, D.C., cop, has lost his wife in an airplane crash. Kristin Scott Thomas, a Republican congresswoman, elegant, articulate, and sophisticated, has lost her husband in the same crash. A little investigation on Ford's part yields the unpleasant discovery that the dead spouses were having an affair. Scott Thomas wants to let go; Ford wants to learn everything about the affair as a way of understanding his wife. The two survivors fight, and then make love, but the characters have been so thoroughly established as utterly unlike each other that their affair seems ridiculous. It's as if a bear had taken up with a swan: you want to look away. With Charles S. Dutton as Ford's partner. Directed with professional skill but too slow a tempo by Sydney Pollack, who appears in the movie as a cynical political advisor. Darryl Ponicsan adapted Warren Adler's novel, but the screenplay credit is given to Kurt Luedtke. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshingly Subtle Film, February 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Random Hearts (DVD)

RANDOM HEARTS was my favorite movie of 1999, but it is most definitely not a movie for everyone. To enjoy RH, you must have an attention span longer than a sound bite. Everything will not be spelled out for you, and you will actually have to do a little thinking. The movie is unapologetically grim for most of its running time, which based on its plot, it should be. Life is not always beautiful, as this movie so subtlely shows. And subtle is the keyword in describing RH. Everything you need to know about the characters is in the film, but it is not always verbal or blatantly obvious. The movie is an emotional puzzle, and if you can't put together the pieces, you will dislike this film. I found putting the pieces together a refreshing challenge. In my opinion, the ending to RH is both a classic and a hair-puller. That is all I'll say.

I'm purchasing the DVD mainly for director Sydney Pollack's commentary and the deleted scenes. There are a couple of scenes in RANDOM HEARTS, the "car" one in particular, that I can't wait to hear his commentary on. I'm also intrigued to know what wound up on the cutting room floor.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Random Hearts, October 13, 2003

By 

unraveler "unraveler" (Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Random Hearts (DVD)

I like this movie. I don't care much about what the critics said about it, nor about its failure to top box office records. I found this movie a psychologically intense drama, and I think acting was very good. Ford portrayed a clearly distraught and somewhat depressed and distracted man who lost his wife in plane crush, and who find out that his wife was cheating on him. He comes in contact with another "survivor," a Congresswoman who lost her husband in the same plane crush. A somewhat unlikely romance develops, while Ford's character continues to be haunted by his wife's betrayal. The subplot, involving a corrupt cop and murder, could be improved--it almost gets in the way of the main storyline. But if you can get beyond this, you will enjoy the movie.

If you are into non-stop action, special effects pictures, this one is not for you. But if you can enjoy a mature film with a real plot, you will do well to see "Random Hearts."

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Was this a contract-fulfillment movie?, May 11, 2000

By 

Bill Lincicome (Aviano Air Base, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Random Hearts [VHS] (VHS Tape)

At least that's what I wondered during the first hour of watching this Harrison Ford movie. Nope, this is absolutely nothing like "Air Force One," "Patriot Games" and especially the Indiana Jones trilogy. Quick plot recap -- Ford is an Internal Affairs sergeant whose wife dies in a plane crash. He soon discovers his wife was on the plane with her lover -- the husband of a congresswoman. He obsessively tries to find out more about the affair, much to the distress (and eventually the attraction) of the congresswoman (Kristin Scott Thomas). I kept waiting for Ford to show some emotion other than looking confused, but then I realized he hit it right on the money. Put yourself in his (and her) shoes -- what would you want to know if your spouse died CHEATING on you? Would you want to know why or try to put it behind you? Charles S. Dutton is predictably good, but is absolutely wasted in his role as Ford's cop buddy as they investigate a crooked cop (Dennis Haysbert -- also wasted). Bottom line -- rent it first.