Random Hearts

About 15 minutes or so from the ending of Random Hearts, there are several loud gun shots. Not that the gunfire is crucial to the outcome of the story. The shots serve as a wakeup call for audience members, who by this point are bored stiff by the proceedings.

Random Hearts is a romantic-thriller shackled with several unnecessary subplots. Harrison Ford, sporting a mod hairdo and matching ear stud, plays Washington, D.C. internal affairs detective Dutch Van Den Broeck. His wife dies in a plane crash. Moving with glacier-like speed, Dutch uncovers evidence that his wife was having an affair with the husband of New Hampshire Congresswoman Kay Chandler (Kristin Scott Thomas). The two lovebirds were sitting together on the ill-fated flight to Miami, headed for a weekend tryst.

Dutch encounters Kay with the news. The Congresswoman, who’s in the middle of an uphill battle for reelection, sloughs off the detective at first. No surprise here, but they eventually have their own passionate rendezvous.

Unfortunately, the story is shackled with two concurrent subplots which become time consuming distractions. The first involves Dutch’s investigation of a rogue cop (Dennis Haysbert) that adds nothing to the movie. The real downside is a wasted performance by Charles S. Dutton, who plays Ford’s partner.

The second is a behind-the-scenes look at Kay’s political campaign. Her political handler is played by director Sydney Pollack. This alone would have made for an interesting movie, but Pollack miscalculates by focusing instead on the desultory relationship between the two big stars. Equally baffling is the sloppy production work, including at least four times when the overhead boom mike appears on camera. There’s also a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t glitch in one scene involving Dutch’s motorcycle. When all is said and done, Random Hearts proves to be a bona fide disaster.