ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE

The Many Hearts of "Playing by Heart"

Copyright (c) 1999 by Michael Segers

-All rights reserved-

Last week, I closed my remarks on "The Thin Red Line" by

saying that it was a three hour movie which should have been over

in two hours. A friend responded that I had written a three page

review which should have been over in two pages.

So, to the point. Directorwriter Willard Carroll's "Playing

by Heart" is funny (very funny), it's sad, it's a pleasure to

watch, and it's even a pleasure to think about, to remember, and

to anticipate seeing again. The film is a web of hearts,

sometimes linking, sometimes not, an anthology of six stories

that bump into each other in unexpected ways. It is also a

showcase for some of our best actors.

Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands play an affluent couple

dealing with forty years of marriage, her success as a television

chef, his brain tumor, and their memories of his infidelities

twenty-five years earlier. Their sparring includes the funniest

lines in this funny film, delivered with perfect timing. Connery

and Rowlands look fabulous, even "fah-bulous," and their por-

trayal of the film's oldest couple is hot, erotic--two definitely

sexy senior citizens. By the way, although in other plots un-

dressed couples end up in bed together, the sheets always stay in

place. No anatomy lessons here, but don't let that keep you away.

Dennis Quaid plays a man of a thousand faces, at least

stories, hanging out in bars, with a new pickup line for each new

woman. In the background or at the taxi stand, however, the same

woman shadows him from persona to persona. Which is the real

one? The envelope, please...

Ellen Burstyn and Jay Mohr, in the film's most poignant

moments, play mother and son dealing with his impending death and

her memories of a loveless marriage. They have never known each

other--through no fault of hers or his either. Their attempts to

build a new relationship are as uncertain as the first steps that

any of the lovers take in their relationships. By the way, it is

THAT Jay Mohr! And, if you have never seen the great work of the

great Ellen Burstyn, then, as they say, run--don't walk--to your

nearest video store and grab "The Spitfire Grill." With her

experience in theater more so than in film, she fills out every

square inch of a characterization, all twenty-seven acres of a

characterization in her case.

In each of the remaining plots, a young woman (Madeleine

Stowe, Angelina Jolie, and Gillian Anderson) deals with the prom-

ise, the possibility, or the threat of a relationship with a

young man (Anthony Edwards, Ryan Phillippe, Jon Stewart). Each

of these plots is set in an emotional mine field. He wants her,

but she doesn't want him, because... because she does want him

(AndersonStewart). She wants him, he wants her, but he can't

want her (JoliePhillippe). Or, they are married, just not to

each other (Stowe, Edwards).

At least since the great, sprawling French film "La Ronde"

by Max Ophuls (1950) through Robert Altman's "Nashville" (1975)

and "Short Cuts" (1993) and Wayne Wang's "Smoke" (1995), this

kind of film, weaving several plots into a sometimes rather bumpy

tapestry, has attracted and challenged filmmakers. This film,

much as I enjoyed it, much as I want to see it again, shows the

weaknesses as well as the strengths inherent in the form. There

is an opportunity for the director to flex his cinematic muscles

with characters, situations, and settings. In fact, this film's

richly detailed ambiance, sometimes at the expense of intimacy of

camera work, suggests Ophuls's work.

On the other hand, while we may want to know, need to know

more, perhaps we are cheated by not seeing the characters fully.

We see things from many different points of view, just not in

great detail. There is an unsettling sense that the whole enter-

prise is made up of short cuts, as insubstantial as smoke. The

greatest problem with this film is that while we don't see much

of the characters, we do hear them, and hear them, and hear them.

The film begins with a line that we hear later in context,

"Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." Then,

let's subtitle this film, "Pirouettin' about Frank Lloyd Wright."

At times, the only way that we know that the characters are in

love (or not) is because they tell us, adding new meaning to the

term talking pictures.

Yet, it is a sparklingly funny film that within its own

limits pleases. Different lines elicited laughs from different

corners of the theater; some of the more subtle witticisms

brought laughter that moved in a wave, as some of us slower wits

took longer to figure them out. While I'm subtitling this roman-

tic comedy, I might add "Four Relationships and a Funeral."

A request. One of many eruptions in the RowlandsConnery

plot involves his giving away the ending of a film that she is

watching, and another character refers to "The Crying Game," Neil

Jordan's 1992 film. When it was released, a major television

network's evening news (NBC, I think) ran a feature on how fans

of the film so scrupulously kept quiet about the film's crucial

plot twist. Willard Carroll must have chuckled as he penned

those lines. So, I shall keep quiet, and I ask you not to give

away the punch line, either.

All I shall say is that the film, like Shakespeare's come-

dies, ends with couples dancing together--while earlier two of

the characters danced alone. They connect, only connect, but

that is perhaps what we are here for, all we are here for. And,

with varying degrees of success, they connect with us as well.

You can check the film out at www.miramax.com, but why both-

er? A site that I find very useful in preparing my reviews is

www.imdb.com; that's Internet Movie Data Base, and it's one of

those sites that are addictive. Hmmm, what was the name of that

film, the one with Rip Torn and Michael J. Fox?

Till next time, let me hear from you. Keep your feet dry

(the better for dancing), your heart full of noble thoughts,

and... to she-who-knows-who-she-is, this is coming in just under

two pages!