Random Hearts Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Random Hearts Blu-ray Movie Review

This Isn't a Romance

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 10, 2013

Director Sydney Pollack started as an actor, which was an essential ingredient in his renowned ability to guide movie stars through such memorable projects as The Way We Were (Barbra Streisand), 3 Days of the Condor (Robert Redford), Bobby Deerfield (Al Pacino), Absence of Malice (Paul Newman), Tootsie (Dustin Hoffman), Out of Africa (Meryl Streep) and The Firm (Tom Cruise). But after collecting Oscars for directing and producing Out of Africa in 1985, Pollack struggled throughout the Nineties with films that contained promising elements but somehow didn't gel when the ingredients were combined. Only The Firm met with commercial success, and despite its solid construction, it lacks the emotional heft of Pollack's best work. (The essential banality of the John Grisham source can't be redeemed by craft alone.) Pollack did not begin to rebound until The Interpreter in 2005, which turned out to be his last film.

Both films that Pollack made with Harrison Ford fall into this creatively becalmed decade. The first was the ill-considered attempt to remake Billy Wilder's Sabrina in 1995, which even Pollack later conceded was a mistake. The other was 1999's Random Hearts, based on the novel by Warren Adler, who also wrote the original book of The War of the Roses. As Pollack describes in the accompanying commentary, an adaptation by Daryl Ponicsan (Cinderella Liberty) had been bouncing around Hollywood for a while, and Ford and Pollack had both expressed interest. But the project took off when Pollack decided to involve journalist Kurt Luedtke, with whom he'd worked successfully on Out of Africa and Absence of Malice. Between the two screenwriters, many elements of Adler's novel were changed, but the core premise remained intact: a combustible, indefinable connection between two people who never would have met, except that their spouses perished while having an affair.

Even at the time, one could appreciate the attraction that such a story might have both for Ford, who was always looking for an opportunity to play against type, and for Pollack, whose filmography is filled with difficult, often impossible, relationships. But when the film hit theaters in the fall of 1999, there was no getting around the fact that it was chilly and off-putting, despite Pollack's usual meticulous craftsmanship and superb performances all around, including from a supporting cast loaded with talent. (Only someone of Pollack's stature could have filled out small roles with the likes of Edie Falco, Richard Jenkins, Dennis Haysbert, Peter Coyote, Dylan Baker, Paul Guilfoyle, Lynne Thigpen, Charles S. Dutton and Bill Cobbs.) During the film's long middle section, Ford and co-star Kristin Scott Thomas created a portrait of shared grief that was so carefully considered it lost all the raw immediacy of the experience. You saw the feelings, but they didn't reach out and grab you.

Viewed today within the totality of a great director's oeuvre, Random Hearts can be appreciated for the parts that work and forgiven for those that don't. The film's opening act ranks with the best Pollack has ever done, but, as he himself admits, the second act presented challenges more difficult than any he had ever confronted. They're the kind that make a filmmaker grow, which is why it's especially poignant that Pollack didn't live to make more films. He and Ford still had a great collaboration ahead of them.

The opening half hour of Random Hearts presents a neatly executed feat of precision editing by William Steinkamp, as the lives of two apparently unconnected individuals are presented with a sense of general foreboding. William "Dutch" Van Den Broeck (Ford) is a sergeant in the Internal Affairs Division of the Washington, D.C. police department. He and his partner, Alcee (Dutton), are currently investigating a dirty cop, Det. George Beaufort (Haysbert), who has been shaking down local establishments. On this particular morning, Dutch makes tentative plans to have dinner with his wife, Peyton (Susanna Thompson), but during the day she will leave him a voicemail message that she's suddenly been sent to Miami by her employer, Saks Fifth Avenue.

Kay Chandler (Scott Thomas) is a Republican Congresswoman from New Hampshire, who has just discovered that she has a serious challenger in the upcoming primary. With her attorney husband, Cullen (Coyote), off to New York on business, she has a full day's schedule of soliciting contributions with her campaign manager, Truman Trainor (Jenkins), and a meeting with a media consultant, Carl Broman (Pollack, who says he cast himself because he was the "cheapest actor I could find" for the part).

When TV screens and radio reports begin buzzing with news of a Miami-bound plane that crashed shortly after takeoff, Kay Chandler takes no notice, because she believes her husband to be headed in the opposite direction, but Dutch begins frantically trying to locate his wife. Discovering that Peyton's name isn't on any flight list, Dutch keeps investigating, even though his cop's instincts have already guessed the truth. Meanwhile, Pollack shows the audience the crash site in a manner that leaves no doubt that both spouses are gone.

Because Cullen Chandler's name did appear on a flight manifest, two airline representatives (Guilfoyle and Thigpen) bring Kay the bad news, and her reaction foreshadows much of what will follow. She not only absorbs the news of her husband's death, but she also adjusts to the realization that he lied to her about his destination. In all the events that follow, Kay Chandler will turn out to be the stronger of the two surviving spouses, for reasons that the film, if it had worked, should have left viewers pondering. Several interesting elements are offered—a politician's experience at keeping up appearances, a longer history of marital tolerance, a mother's instinctive need to protect her daughter (Kate Mara)—but by the end they get lost in a distracting subplot involving Dutch's police work.

It's Dutch who drives the film's long middle section, as he becomes obsessed with learning as much detail about his wife's infidelity as possible, in the course of which he doesn't care whom he offends or upsets. As he explains to Kay after tracking her down, he wants to know at what point he can trust the memories of his marriage as being true. What galls him the most (and he says so) is that someone whose job it is to separate fact from fiction couldn't spot the deception on his own doorstep. Ford's performance in this portion of the film is notable for its refusal to curry any favor with an audience. His Dutch expresses grief through a bitter, concentrated fury that risks alienating the viewer (and, in many cases, did just that).

The relationship that arises between Dutch and Kay is emotional, often violently so, but it is anything but romantic, even in its rare moments of tenderness. Kay describes it aptly near the end of the film when she refers to them both as "survivors", in the sense that they have shared an experience no one else can understand. That does not, however, mean that they belong together. If Pollack and Luedtke had been able to orchestrate their separation without the melodramatic intervention of Dutch's work life, Random Hearts might have worked better. If nothing else, it would have been shorter, because Pollack wouldn't have had to spend so much time with extraneous characters to set up the conclusion. As things stand, you can almost glimpse the film-that-got-away. To paraphrase Roger Ebert, if this were a screenplay, you'd suggest another draft.

Random Hearts Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Random Hearts was one of the Sony catalog titles farmed out to Image Entertainment, and unlike its handling of catalog materials released on Blu-ray through Mill Creek, Sony has consistently delivered good quality for Image. The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Random Hearts is no exception. Oscar winner Philippe Rousselot's (A River Runs Through It) soft and somber lighting has been admirably reproduced with its natural textures and delicate colors, which range from the steely grays and blues of the chilly opening portions to the warmer and more colorful passages in Miami, where Dutch retraces his wife's travels, and the secluded woods where Dutch has a cabin. Detail is impressive throughout, including the crash site (so realistic that passing motorists called 911, despite numerous signs advising that it was just a movie set). No obvious sharpening or grain reduction appears to have been applied. Although the disc dates from an era when Image was still using BD-25s even for films over two hours, the compressionist seems to have managed the job without artifacts (probably because so much of the film consists of conversation).

Random Hearts Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like the DVD, the Blu-ray lacks a dedicated LFE channel, and the soundtrack has been encoded as DTS-HD MA 5.0 (rather than 5.1). Subtle ambient effects animate the surrounds throughout, but they rarely call attention to themselves. One exception occurs early in the film when planes are taxiing at airports, and one is briefly aware of jet engines passing back and forth. Otherwise, the track is devoted to the clear reproduction of dialogue—clear enough to catch the occasional British intonation breaking through Kristin Scott Thomas' American accent—and Dave Grusin's delicate, piano-dominated jazz score.

Random Hearts Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Sony's 2000 DVD. Omitted are the isolated music track and the HBO special First Look: The Making of "Random Hearts", although they are included on Image's DVD edition of Random Hearts.

• Commentary with Director Sydney Pollack: Although there are more than a few silent passages, Pollack's commentary is informative and useful. He covers both story points and technical and logistical issues surrounding the production. On the former, it is interesting to note which scenes presented special difficulties for the director, screenwriter and actors, and why (the interaction in the car immediately after Kay and Dutch return from Miami is a notable example). Pollack's reflections on the film's conclusion, which he regards as open-ended, are also thought-provoking.



• Deleted Scenes with Narration by Sydney Pollack (480i; 1.85:1): Pollack's "narration" can't be switched off, but it's only a brief intrusion that explains why each scene was cut. The scene between Broman (played by Pollack) and his opposite number, Shirley Magnuson (Kathleen Chalfant), is particularly good, but as Pollack notes, it was extraneous.
• Dutch and Alcee Drive Shyla Home (1:10)
• Broman Meets with Shirley Magnuson (1:09)
• Kay and Tru Search for Campaign HQ (1:17)



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:33): Although the trailer is technically 1080p, it appears to have been upscaled from a lower-resolution source.

Random Hearts Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Too many of Sidney Pollack's notable films remain MIA on Blu-ray, including Tootsie, The Yakuza, This Property Is Condemned and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? While it's unfortunate that one of this fine director's weakest works has been given a quality Blu-ray release while other, more deserving works languish in the vaults, Pollack fans can at least enjoy this presentation of Random Hearts for the director's signature attention to detail and the finely tuned performances he routinely drew from talented actors. Even if the whole doesn't come together, the parts are beautifully shaped. Recommended for the presentation.