A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Random Hearts

Date Viewed: 10/15/99

Details:

Harrison Ford

Kristin Scott Thomas

Director: Sydney Pollack

Score: +

The Review: A romantic drama based on a novel by Warren Adler, who was also author of the screenplay for War of the Roses.

He (Ford) is an aggressive Washington DC detective. She (Scott Thomas) is a popular and successful US representative. Unknown to either of them, their spouses have been having an affair for some time; this is discovered only obliquely in the wake of the investigation of the crash of the plane the spouses happen to be taking together to a Florida rendezvous. Although they have never met before, he and she are thrown together by his forceful, occasionally annoying, angry, and persistent investigation of all the clues that were there, but were missed the first time around. The focus is on their developing relationship.

There is a significant subplot based on the hunt for a local DC crime boss -- but other than a construction leading to a tense finale, this is a distraction from the main thread. But, following the model of of the screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman, it allows one of the threads to succeed and the other to fail, and bring some degree of closure.

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