Playing by Heart

Plot

Eleven articulate people work through affairs of the heart in L.A.

Release Year: 1998

Rating: 7.1/10 (11,962 voted)

Director:
Willard Carroll

Stars: Gillian Anderson, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery

Storyline
Eleven articulate people work through affairs of the heart in L.A. Paul produces Hannah's TV cooking show, and they must move beyond gentle barbs when she wants to know about an affair of his years ago. Mark is dying of AIDS, and his mother comes to his bedside: they must talk truthfully. Men have scalded Meredith so she rebuffs Trent's charm, but he persists. The trendy, prolix Joan tries to pull the solitary Keenan into her orbit: why is he reluctant? An adulterous couple meet at hotels for evening sex, but she is unwilling for the relationship to grow. Hugh tells tall tales, usually tragic, to women in bars. By the week's end, their parallel stories converge.

Cast:

Angelina Jolie
–

Joan

Sean Connery
–

Paul

Gena Rowlands
–

Hannah

Gillian Anderson
–

Meredith

Madeleine Stowe
–

Gracie

Ryan Phillippe
–

Keenan

Dennis Quaid
–

Hugh

Christian Mills
–

Phillip

Kellie Waymire
–

Jane

April Grace
–

Valery

Anthony Edwards
–

Roger

Ellen Burstyn
–

Mildred

Jay Mohr
–

Mark

Tim Halligan
–

Cook Show Director

Michael Emerson
–

Bosco

Taglines:
The comedy with a twist.

Release Date: 23 April 1999

Filming Locations: Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $14,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: $26,669
(USA)
(3 January 1999)
(1 Screen)

Gross: $3,956,212
(USA)
(21 February 1999)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Most of John Barry's score was replaced with a new score by composer Christopher Young. Barry's credit on the film was retained, however, and a CD was released with Barry's largely unused score.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes:
Although Joan's cat is called Blanche and is consistently referred to as "she", the actual animal is a male (tomcat).

Quotes:

Joan:
Blanche can look at you with a gaze of unflappable superiority that springs from total detachment and disinterest… not unlike how you're looking at me know.

User Review

very pleasing

Rating:

Sean Connery leads an all star cast in an extraordinary yet odd film. I
didn't really understand this film until I reached the end and then all
the pieces fell into place. I had to see it twice to really grasp what
the plot was all about.

The story followed four different couples; married, engaged, dating and
cheating. Gillian Anderson and Jon Stewart literally bumped into each
other and are about to venture out on a first date.

Angelina Jolie is crazy for a guy she met at the club (Ryan Phillipe),
Anthony Edwards and Madeline Stowe are cheating on their respective
spouses. This makes for an interesting viewing and ending, which was a
complete twist, and a pleasant shock. "Playing By Heart" has a lot of
complex story lines that really works.

This was a film of epic proportions and showed what it had to take to
maintain relationships and what love really is and what it will do if
people truly love their spouses. I was impressed with everyone's
performance; however, I must point out the most outstanding one, which
was by Angelina Jolie. Jolie has finally come out from her father's
shadow and created one heck of a resume of films that includes "Gia"
and "The Bone Collector" among others.

I highly recommend this film to everyone.