TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

slightlymad22 Continuing my plan to watch every Sean Connery movie in order, I come to Playing By Heart (1998)Plot In A Paragraph: A bunch of people dealing with their relationships in L.A.This movie has an all star cast. And that's about it. I can see why this failed to find an audience. It has far too many characters that you don't spend enough time with any of them to really invest in them.Some you don't care about at all, others you do, but it's mainly because of the actors playing them. I think my favourite couple in the movie was Angelina Jolie and Ryan Phillipe. And I can't stand that woman, so it says something. Playing By Heart tanked at the box office (I doubt it was ever intended as a blockbuster) grossing only $3 million at the domestic box office.

Daniel Laumann Fordsmand To my surprise ''Playing by Heart'' was in fact a good movie.I saw it with my wife and we both liked it. Although we have seen the story - or should I say stories - before, but none of it is ever trite or offensive. It's all played out with such grace and nuance that even it's somewhat conventional ending is welcomed. The acting is well-acted and it is almost impossible not to like the long list of characters.Playing By heart is seriously playing by Skill. It is emotional,sensational,funny, and just the right movie for a bad day. A true feel-good film that shows us a sweet (but still realistic) picture about the many sides of love.

Lechuguilla Several pairs of couples experience love and angst in contemporary Los Angeles. The film's structure is somewhat unusual, in that one pair gets a minute or two of screen time, followed by a second pair, then a third. These short stories rotate, and progress independent of each other. As a result, through much of the film, the overall plot seems disjointed. However, the film's writers do unify these various, seemingly unrelated, plot strands toward the end. The short stories of Joan and Keenan, Paul and Hannah, and Mildred and Mark I found more interesting than the stories of the other characters.As implied by the film's title, human emotions have major import: love, anger, disappointment, humor, affection, resentment, and so on. Not surprisingly, there's lots of dialogue; and the dialogue contains significant subtext. The film's pace is slow and methodical; the film has a very laid-back feel to it. At times, you would think you were watching a TV soap opera.The lives of these characters are upscale. As such, the film exudes elegance and refinement, as well as, in the case of Joan and Keenan, youthful "hip". Production design is lavish; costumes tend to be chic. Background music is eclectic, with some emphasis on slow, laid-back jazz. Acting ranges from fair to very good. I especially liked the performances of Angelina Jolie, and the always-reliable Gena Rowlands, Sean Connery, and Ellen Burstyn.The film does a nice job of putting these characters' lives within the context of the larger environment in which they all live ... Los Angeles. Many times throughout, we see the L.A. skyline and all those palm trees. It's as if the city itself is a character, with a tacit influence on these people's lives and emotions.I'm not sure that the film really imparts anything new to viewers. All these relationships tend to be rather typical, or contrived, depending on your point of view. Still, as pleasant diversionary fluff, the film is worth a one-time viewing to get the general ambiance. But to really understand the intricacies and subtleties of these characters and their lives, I suggest a second viewing.

reinberg77 Romantic Commedies that are tried to be more on the pulse of a dramatic realism can work. This one didn't - at least not for me. It feels like someone is trying to have something to say about the world, no matter what age or social surrounding the characters come from. BS! I couldn't feel a thing personal there. If it helps, my girlfriend at the time liked it (therefor I gave 3 stars instead of one).Oh I just found out, that a comment has to contain at least ten lines. What kind of an idea is that?! OK, well, I guess if I had seen the film just yesterday, I could easily write more and comprehensive comments. Sorry, it has been a while.