Random Hearts
{4/5} “What’s the last thing that you can remember about your husband that you know to be true?”
Random Hearts, released in 1999
It’s only on rare occasions now that I will watch a movie that’s on TV, with my viewing interrupted by commercials — this is one of those occasions. This was my second time seeing Random Hearts.
Dutch is a police officer who’s shocked to find that his wife was on a plane that crashed. As a person who’s in the habit of getting to the bottom of mysteries, he works to find out why she was on that plane. He tracks down Kay, a senator, whose husband was sitting next to his wife on the plane. Kay doesn’t want a scandal discovered that could affect her career, but she does eventually decide she wants to know what happened.
Although this movie wasn’t particularly well reviewed, I liked it. It’s an interesting combination of romance and police investigation.
The music was composed by Dave Grusin (The Goonies) — it’s jazz with a piano and trumpet focus. It’s fine for the movie but didn’t make me want to rush out and buy it.
A large part of the success of the movie rests on the acting of Harrison Ford (Witness) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Gosford Park) who play Dutch and Kay respectively. They convince you that what’s happening to their characters is really happening. Charles S. Dutton (Alien3) plays Dutch’s partner Alcee, and Bonnie Hunt (the TV show Life With Bonnie) plays Kay’s friend Wendy.
The movie was directed by Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa).