Playing by Heart (1998, Gillian Anderson, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie, Gena Rowlands, Ryan Phillippe, Jay Mohr, Dennis Quaid) – Classic Film Review 977

Couples encounter love lost and found in Los Angeles in director Willard Carroll’s intelligent, starry, feel-good 1998 conversation piece, with the concept (11 articulate people work through affairs of the heart in LA) and dialogue expertly written by the director.

Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands touchingly struggle to come to terms with his impending death and the near-affair he had years ago. Connery’s Paul produces the TV cooking show of Rowlands’s Hannah, who wants to know all about the affair he’s supposed to have had.

Angelia Jolie and Ryan Phillippe are unlucky clubbers as Jolie’s trendy Joan tries to pull Phillippe’s solitary Keenan into her orbit. Ellen Burstyn is a tragic mom whose son (Jay Mohr) is dying of AIDS. She comes to his bedside and they are forced to talk to each other truthfully.

Gillian Anderson is Meredith, a dedicated theatre director who rebuffs Trent (Jon Stewart), who nevertheless persists. And Dennis Quaid is Hugh, an oddball who offloads his fantasies and tragic tall tales on lonely women in bars.

By the week’s end, their parallel stories converge.

Anthony Edwards, Madeleine Stowe, Matt Malloy, Christian Mills, Kellie Waymire and Patricia Clarkson also star.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review  977

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com