Random Hearts (1999)
7/10
A comfort to each other
27 June 2015
Sydney Pollack kept a tight directorial rein on his stars and his cast in Random Hearts. As a result you get a romantic film both tender and expressive in their faces. Good thing that Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas have faces that the camera loves.

They are the most unlikeliest of lovers. The only other way that these two would meet is if Washington, DC cop Ford was ever assigned to a security detail Representative Thomas. Unlikely as Ford's assignment is Internal Affairs. But somewhere their spouses Susanna Thompson and Peter Coyote did meet. In fact they've been meeting regularly for some time now.

It all comes to light when the two are killed in a plane crash that goes down in the Potomac River. As one of them is traveling under an assumed name and the other lied about her destination it does take someone with the mind of an investigator to track it down. Depending on your point of view of how fortunate for Ford that he is one.

Both Ford and Thomas are dealing with other issues. Ford and his partner Charles Dutton have just busted Dennis Haysbert, a cop who was shaking down social club operators for protection money. In fact in a very interesting hostage scene Ford puts Haysbert in custody. You have to see the film alone for how he handles that.

As for Thomas she's facing a multi-millionaire opponent for her seat which is one of the two in New Hampshire. Not really a good time for dirty laundry to be aired. We never see her opponent, but he's one of those family values types so we know exactly what she can expect.

Still these two become a comfort to each other and soon enough become quite a bit more. How their worlds eventually publicly intersect is for you to see Random Hearts.

In a modern urban setting Random Hearts is a love story, the kind that Hollywood used to do so well. Bid kudos to Sydney Pollack and his stars and cast for delivering on this one.
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