Web posted on:
Friday, October 08, 1999 1:14:24 PM EST

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- It's too bad Hollywood is a dream factory and not a bakery. "Random Hearts" has all the right ingredients for a great cinematic cake.

Begin with a script by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Kurt Luedtke ("Out of Africa," 1985) based on Warren Adler's 1984 novel. Mix well with two huge stars, Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas. Put it all into the hands of an excellent chef, director Sydney Pollack (also an Oscar-winner for "Out of Africa"). And voila -- tasty perfection.

Unfortunately, "Random Hearts" isn't a cake, it's a film, and it's only half-baked.

Ford stars as Dutch Van Den Broeck, a sergeant in the Internal Affairs Division of the Washington police department. His wife Peyton, played by Susanna Thompson, works for a local branch of Saks Fifth Avenue. They seem to have a happy and predictable life together.

Scott Thomas plays Kay Chandler, a congresswoman from New Hampshire running a hotly contested campaign for re-election. Her husband Cullen (Peter Coyote) is a businessman with a fast-paced career of his own. The two have a teen-age daughter Jessica, played by Kate Mara, whom Kay fearlessly protects.

Both couples lead predictable and orderly lives. Then disaster strikes.

A Boeing 737 headed for Miami Beach crashes into Chesapeake Bay shortly after takeoff from Washington. On board are Cullen and Peyton, traveling as "Mr. and Mrs. Cullen Chandler" in seats 3A and 3B. The two are having an affair. When their surviving spouses discover the truth, they react in totally different ways.

As a cop, Dutch feels doubly betrayed. He uncovers lies for a living and his wife has fooled him. He's driven to find out exactly what happened and how.

By contrast, Kay feels that what's done is done. Any search into more details will only jeopardize her run for office.

There's your conflict. He wants to know. She doesn't.

For the rest of the film, they chew on that same bone, back and forth, and get nowhere. They also chew on each other. Thrown together in grief, the two have a stormy little affair of their own. That goes nowhere, too.

At one point, Kay pleads with Dutch, "You want to know why and there is no why." Exactly. A dictionary definition of "random" is "lacking aim or method; purposeless; haphazard." That, in a nutshell, is the verdict on "Random Hearts."

Despite its performances and craft, this film has no punch. If it weren't for a subplot about a crooked cop Dutch is investigating in his spare time, the story would have no tension. That subplot provides the film's climax -- that's how weak the main story is in "Random Hearts."

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Harrison Ford is always worth watching. On screen, he's the Rock of Gibraltar. Kristin Scott Thomas lends her perfect English reserve to this role, and expertly textures her character's emotional denial.

Pollack's films -- among them "Tootsie," 1982, and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" 1969 -- have drawn 46 Academy nominations. Pollack's direction has been nominated three times. This man knows his way around a camera. As he did in "Tootsie," Pollack takes a role in "Random Hearts" while directing.

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A quick look at his filmography shows that Pollack is attracted to adult situations. He's not afraid of taking his time while letting a story unfold on screen. Thankfully, he hasn't jumped on the MTV bandwagon when it comes to his directing style.

But the inner journey taken by his two stars never develops into the emotional showdown needed to engage an audience. Once more, to borrow a line from Kay, "What difference does it make? It's over. It's entirely over."

It's nice to see mature actors on screen in love scenes, instead of aging stars robbing cradles. But a compelling story with a beginning, middle and an end would be good, too.

"Random Hearts" is rated R for brief violence, sexuality and language. 129 minutes.