Playing by Heart (1998)
Director: Willard Carroll Cast: Gillian Anderson, Angelina Jolie, Madeleine Stowe, Anthony Edwards, Ryan Phillippe, Gena Rowlands, Sean Connery, Dennis Quaid, Ellen Burstyn, Jay Mohr, Jon Stewart, Patricia Clarkson, Nastassja Kinski Screenplay: Willard Carroll Producers: Willard Carroll, Meg Liberman, Thomas L. Wilhite Runtime: 121 min. US Distribution: Miramax Rated R: language
Copyright 1998 Nathaniel R. Atcheson
Angelina Jolie plays the most interesting character in Playing by Heart, a young woman named Joan. In the first scene of the film, she says, "Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." The title of this film was, in fact, Dancing about Architecture. I can't imagine why anyone wanted to change it, for the previous title is far more interesting and memorable than the current one. In addition, the first and last scenes require the original title to make sense. But the quote still sums up the film effectively: Playing by Heart is a story about a bunch of people who really aren't good at talking about love.
Writer/director Willard Carroll has created a nice romantic comedy here; he uses the standard Robert Altman approach, which consists of attacking the audience with as many scenarios as it can handle, until the very end, at which point he tells us how they're all related and why any of it is relevant. As with most films of numerous narratives, not every story in Playing by Heart is successful. But the film as a whole is frequently both funny and moving; it's also an insightful look into the dreaded world of dating.
The film focuses on a few romantic relationships, and a couple of non-romantic relationships. Joan -- the character I mentioned above -- is a talkative club-hopper who becomes interested in a reclusive, blue-haired lad named Keenan (Ryan Phillippe). Meredith (Gillian Anderson) is a timid stage director who has turned herself off to dating altogether, until she meets Trent (Jon Stewart), who is hell-bent on getting her to like him. Then there's Gracie (Madeline Stowe), a married woman who retreats to a hotel with Roger (Anthony Edwards) a few times a week, obsessed with the idea of having a purely sexual relationship without any of the baggage that a normal relationship entails.
Other subplots involve an older woman, Mildred (Ellen Burstyn), who goes to visit her dying son, Mark (Jay Mohr). There's also Hugh (Dennis Quaid), who is seen in various bars, picking up on both men and women, telling them all kinds of stories about his wife and children. The central relationship of Playing by Heart has Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands playing Paul and Hannah, an older couple approaching their 40th anniversary. Hannah discovers a picture of a woman Paul knew twenty-five years prior, and many arguments ensue.
I have a common problem with all films like this: I tend to prefer focused stories, and just when I'm getting drawn into a scenario, the narrative shifts to another one and I have to recalibrate my attention. There is certainly enough material in each individual story to warrant separate films, but Carroll is clearly interested in the way they complement one another. At first I was skeptical -- the stories didn't seem like they needed each other. By the end, though, I understood why Carroll chose the stories he did. And while no film can truly explicate the ludicrous complications that love brings upon us, Playing by Heart does an admirable job trying.
Playing by Heart is an atmospheric film; Carroll and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond did a great job filling the picture with lush moods and velvet tones. Trent's postmodern house -- which looks to be composed almost entirely of 90-degree angles and black wood -- is a fascinating location. Thanks to production designer Missy Stewart, all the sets are fascinatingly attractive, and well-photographed by Zsigmond. John Barry's musical score is also appropriate, though it does tend to get a little heavy-handed in the later scenes.
What really makes Playing by Heart a memorable film are the performances. Angelina Jolie steals every scene she has, injecting such indefatigable spunk and intelligence that I was electrified whenever she appeared on screen. Ryan Phillippe, with his unimpeachable monotony, is appropriately dry here, and is surprisingly not buried by Jolie's work. Connery and Rowlands are both pros, and handle their roles accordingly. Also notable is the Anderson/Stewart pairing; Anderson is an immensely likable actress, and has proven that she has range beyond her stoic "X-Files" iciness. Jay Mohr is affecting as the dying AIDS patient, and Burstyn is very good as the mother.
Even though I often felt jostled with the transitions between stories (Carroll really doesn't try to make the transitions smooth), I can't say I wasn't involved in most of the stories. There are a couple that didn't quite work for me, though. Even though I liked Connery and Rowlands, I didn't always believe what they were saying -- I had trouble believing that they loved each other. I was also confounded by the Hugh scenario -- Quaid doesn't seem to know exactly what he's doing, and the situation is just too complicated for this kind of movie. But perhaps even these elements are intentional. The one thing Playing by Heart does extremely well is to show us how love is always both disastrously complicated and inexplicably wonderful. It sounds like a trite and overplayed theme, but there's still some life to be found in it.
Psychosis Rating: 7/10
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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