Harrison
Ford has always been one of my favorite actors, but lately he's made some rather
disappointing career moves. Six Days, Seven Nights was a horrible misfire, and
even Air Force One was an overblown action film. Add Random Hearts to the bad
choice list.
In
this film, Ford plays an internal affairs detective (he was much better as a police
officer in the far superior The Devil's Own) who gets the disheartening news that
his wife has died in a plane crash. Even more disheartening is the fact that she
was with another man. Ford feels compelled to find out more about his wife's affair
and it leads him to a congresswoman played by Kristin Scott Thomas (The English
Patient, The Horse Whisperer), who wants to forget about her husband (who was
having an affair with Ford's wife) and get on with her life. Naturally, there's
an unexplained attraction between the two.
Random
Hearts was directed by the overrated Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, The Firm)
who, ironically, seems a better actor (Death Becomes Her, Eyes Wide Shut) than
director. I never once felt a connection between the two leads, nor did I care
about their absurd situation. Ford plays the stoic cop well, but doesn't really
get to shine, while Thomas came across as completely unbelievable. The only thing
congressional about her was her hairstyle.
Dragging
the film down even further are a string of unnecessary sub- plots, making the
already too long running time seem much longer. Ford still remains one of my favorites,
but this miscalculated film was another bad choice. In the end, Random Hearts
is an uninteresting character study about obsession and betrayal, topics that
Eyes Wide Shut dealt with in a much more innovative way.
