Opens October 8, 1999

If we are to believe the trailer for Random Hearts, we should be getting a taut Harrison Ford thriller with a romance thrown in for good measure. Instead, the result is the opposite -- a romantic drama with very few thrills and mixed results. Blame falls in many places, starting an emotionally distant screenplay and continuing with Sydney Pollack's all too languid direction and Ford being miscast as a obsessed working class detective.

This film is meant to be an exploration of the odd ways that people find their lives intersecting, of how random situations conspire with fate to change our worlds. The premise itself is rather provocative -- a man and woman from utterly different walks of life fall in love after their respective spouses, who were having an affair, die in a plane crash. A bit contrived, but there are possibilities. The trouble here is that there is little set-up for the events that ensue, thus leaving us with a vague sense of characters' identities and a jumbled mess of subplots that fail to touch us on an emotional or completely realistic level.

As the story unfolds, both detective Dutch Van Den Broeck (Harrison Ford) and Senator Kay Chandler (Kristin Scott Thomas) assume they have wonderful marriages to their respective spouses Peyton (Susanna Thompson) and Cullen(Peter Coyote). Indeed, while Peyton and Cullen are both off on business, neither Kay nor Dutch think anything of an airplane that crashes in Chesapeake Bay. Soon enough, however, both hero and heroine learn that their spouses have been killed in the same plane crash. Dutch, piecing together the clues, soon realizes the deceit of Peyton's "business trip" and uncovers the fact that she was travelling with - and as the wife of - none other than Cullen Chandler.

Dutch makes quick work of contacting Kay, who has no desire to hear the dirty details of her husband's life, especially if they will hurt her campaign for re-election or sully her daughter's (Kate Mara) image of her father. Yet, Dutch's curiosity and insistence finally get to Kay, and the two meet up in Miami, attempting to piece together the why and the wherefore of their spouses' affair. Thus begins an odyssey of regret, anger and eventual passion (some of it rather embarrassing) as Kay and Dutch find themselves drawn to each other for comfort and strength.

The story starts losing steam as Dutch plods on, obsessed with his wife's transgression. Unlike Kay, he can't forget the past, and Peyton's lies consume his every waking moment. Indeed, it is Dutch's obsession that eventually dooms his burgeoning relationship with Kay, who remains uncertain how her own affair with Dutch can withstand the test of time. Interwoven here are awkward sub-plots dealing with Dutch's internal affairs investigation of a bad cop and Kay's juggling her re-election bid. These moments are clearly meant to illustrate just how different these characters' lives truly are, but they seem more like filler than necessary story arcs.

The film is taken from the novel by Warren Adler, who brought us a more wicked examination of love American style with War of the Roses. Unlike that story, Random Hearts, as written by Kurt Luedtke (adaptation credit goes to Darryl Ponicsan), lacks focus and clarity of themes. Certainly, there is the examination of how crisis can give birth to passion and how people from different classes and worlds find their way to one another. Unfortunately, these ideas are handled with such languorous touch that we start to fidget, hoping that something will happen.

As for helmer Pollack, he certainly knows how to make a film look pretty, but his deliberate pacing of an already deliberate screenplay could doom this film after the initial star power buzz wears off. Indeed, Pollack's acting herein is far more accomplished than his directorial vision. Kristin Scott Thomas valiantly assails her role as a blue blood senator, pulling off the aristocratic thing but struggling with the rather shrill direction her character takes. She is at her best toward the end of the film, when her true vulnerability shows.

On the other hand, vulnerability has never been Harrison Ford's strong suit. The actor, like others of his caliber, suffers from the curse of star power. We don't want to see Harrison Ford be anyone but Harrison Ford and lately his choice of roles, except for Air Force One, haven't shown him in the best light. He should be saving the plane from terrorists, not sifting through its wreckage for signs of his wife's affair. Ford is at his best when he is roguish, stubborn and intellectual. Here, as Dutch Van Den Broeck, he seems to be struggling against type, especially in the love scenes. As it is, he does an admirable job, but he can't hide the fact that he seems uncomfortable.

For die-hard Ford fans and perhaps a much older crowd, Random Hearts may hold some appeal. However, for anyone under forty, it is more likely to feel forced and overly sentimental. Although being sold as a thriller, there is little of the genre to be seen and, as a romance, it is pushed off-balance by all the other, unnecessary plot baggage. Sad to say, but somehow the usually stellar talents of Pollack, Ford and Scott Thomas don't spell success here. The melodrama overwhelms all else, and one can only feel that the spouses who went down with the plane got off the easiest.