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Caution: Very Minor Spoilers

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what I think of Playing By Heart. There's lots going on, so I'll be nice and start with a quick summary: This movie is a near miss, kind of like emotional mush that isn't too bad going down but soon forgotten.

I think that "soon forgotten" thing is the root of my biggest issue. While I watched this I felt like I'd seen it before. But it wasn't very strong and usually if I've seen a movie before I really remember it. This one just felt kind of faded. I might just be remembering the trailers, or things I'd heard and read about it, or it might be that it was forgetfull enough that I really did see it a few years ago and have since forgotten. Just that I consider that a real possibility shows me how forgetful I think this movie is.

The cast is certainly great. It includes Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, Ryan Phillipe, Jay Mohr, Angelina Jolie, Jon Stewart (doing more drama then comedy and doing a good job at it), Dennis Quaid, Anthony Edwards, Madeleine Stowe. They all did well, but only Angelina Jolie gave a really memorable performance. I think the script was the key problem.

First, there are too many characters. Look at that list of actors! They all have real characters. Not just that, but each is segmented into groups of two and the film bounces between those pairs as they do slow reveals and character development. That's too many characters to successfully develop in one movie, and consequentially I didn't really buy into any of them. They're all pretty messed up, and most of them do some big time character developments in very short periods of time. This is a movie where people appear to fall deeply in love after one date. That doesn't really jive with the way they're emotionally wounded, and I'm guessing the filmmakers would have liked to stretch some of that out a bit to make it more reasonable, but they didn't have time. This is like relationship cliff notes: all the essense, none of the journey. But the journey is where the good stuff is, that's where the truth lives.

The other key problem is we figure all of these pairs are somehow connected to eachother (they didn't just choose a random sample to show in the movie, right?) But the reveal of how they're connected doesn't happen until the very end. I guess in a better movie this would add depth to the story, and make me want to go back and watch it all again to see new meaning in the relationships and how the people grew. But they didn't do a good enough job for it to really take hold like that. I personally think it would have been a much better movie if it was all explained at the start, instead of being kept a secret. In fact, if you'd like to get my quick "I think the movie would be better knowing this before you watch it" summary send me an email, I'll hook you up. For those of you that want to just watch it and try to figure it out I'll give you a hint. It's all in the uncommon phrase "Anger Ball."

So yeah, this movie had the potential to be pretty good, but in the end wasn't all that great. I think it would have been a lot better if it was less ambitious about developing all those characters and didn't try to keep us in the dark about what's going on.

Note:
There was another quote I really liked in this movie, and it even had the special bonus of being said by Jon Stewart:
Her: I have a hard time trusting men.
Him: I'm not men. I'm not a group. I'm just me.

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