Playing By Heart
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Angelina Jolie, April Grace, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Patricia ClarksonBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.20:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
Published: 1999-08-01
DVD Release Date: 1999-08-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of Playing By Heart
Movie Review: I don't believe in Harry
Summary: 5 Stars
*Playing By Heart* (1998) is the movie that first drew my attention to that extraordinary actress, Angelina Jolie. Before this, the only Jolie film I had seen was *The Bone Collector*. My focus then was on Denzel's role and the suspenseful story. I assumed Ms Jolie (about whom I knew nothing) was just one more young actress fresh off that Hollywood conveyor belt supplying beautiful new co-stars for the A-list male leads in top-budget productions. Later I watched her in *Playing By Heart.* It was an experience that I'd never had before watching any actress. Her role as Joan transcends acting. Let me put it this way: watching her, I forgot I was watching an act. For example, as Ms Jolie speaks her "dancing about architecture" lines to the camera, it's Joan seated across the table, talking to me as a good friend.
In my review of *Gia* I said Ms Jolie's performance is one of the very best ever put to film. That's a fact. But whenever I watch *Gia* I never forget that I'm watching a splendid piece of acting by an amazing talent. *Playing By Heart* ís, to me, a date. A date with a beautiful, eccentric, highly-strung, fast-talking, sympathetic young lady named Joan. That's why this is my personal number-one favorite Jolie movie. Not that I'm saying that for objective reasons *Playing By Heart* is better than *Gia*, *Girl Interrupted*, or any other great Jolie film you may name. It's just that this is one movie that made me a fan.
Like Gina in *Love is All There Is* or Lanie in *Life or Something Like It*, Joan is one of those very special Jolie characters that you are going to see in one movie and one movie only. I like her the best because it seems to me that Angelina really lets us in and shows us the whole person. There's nothing hidden about Joan. She's all right there. It's easy to get to know her, and once you do, you feel you've known her a long time. She's innocent, spontaneous, goodhearted, and as fiery as her red hair. Plus Joan dresses funny. Tight gold-lame' pants, mauve bra peeking out of her blouse...on a movie date? What a weird chick. Joan of *Playing By Heart* is the 180-degree opposite of Claire of *Playing God.* Claire is cool, elegant, watchful, calculating, a sophisticated cypher. (Don't get me wrong--I think Claire's great! Angelina Jolie's range of characterizations is just amazing!)
Emotionally, Joan's incredibly needy. There's a bit too much frantic female energy surging around inside her. She's so intense in her yearning to be loved that she drives men away. The result? Loneliness. Lately she's had to resort to charmingly desperate little tricks to try to get close to guys she's attracted to. If you've seen *Playing By Heart* you know one trick she pulled, pretending that her car was stolen. This was to force her date-who-was-not-a-date Keenan (Ryan Phillipe) to walk her to her apartment, where she hoped one thing would lead to another. "It didn't work out," she later sighed, on the phone to her sister.
Though I can't prove it, I believe earlier on she pulled another trick just to meet Keenan the first time. Years ago I knew a girl who did a similar thing to get a guy's attention and sympathy and to let him know she was available. It's the trick of pretending you just broke up with a rotten boyfriend. A girl who'll play a farce like that is hoping it'll make her seem more interesting than the unvarnished truth: she hasn't had a boyfriend for a long time.
When we first meet Joan, she's this 20-something club-cat cutie talking on the pay phone in an L.A. danceteria called the Mayan. Joan's in the loud process of breaking up with "someone" she calls Harry. There's this good-looking but very reserved guy in a queue that's lined up next to the phone area. That's Keenan, the one with the blue-dyed hair. Keenan can't help but overhear Joan. She very distinctly reminds "Harry" they've been together four months..."UNTIL YOU CHEATED ON ME WITH THAT SKANK FROM BLOOMINGDALE!" At this point "Harry" apparently hangs up on Joan--just when the moving queue puts Keenan directly next to her. Joan turns and asks Keenan if she can borrow a quarter. He fishes in his pocket and finds one for her. Joan shoves the quarter into the slot, punches the keypad, gets "Harry" back on the line, and starts arguing with him about how to divide the stuff in the apartment they've been sharing. Shortly "Harry" hangs up again. Keenan gives her another quarter, his last. Joan's lucky on this call and quickly achieves closure. After hanging up she turns to tell to Keenan that the least she can do after taking his last quarter is to get him to buy her a drink. Next we see them at a table together.
Joan's meeting with Keenan seems entirely accidental. But in fact Joan has had her eye on him for some time. As they talk over her martini and his Coke, she lets it slip she's seen him around in clubs like the Mayan, where she's noticed he's always dancing alone. Hmmmm...the reality of this "Harry" character becomes even more doubtful when Joan tells Keenan that she and Harry were together for five months. Keenan reminds her that on the phone she'd said four months. Ästonished, she smiles and marvels, "You were paying attention!" "The whole club was paying attention," Keenan dryly responds. She insists it was five months, then quickly moves on.
I don't believe in Harry. I think Joan was calling her apartment from the pay phone, but in fact there was no Harry nor anybody else to pick up. The whole show was an act to lure Keenan in. After all, Joan is an actress. Moreover she later tells her brother-in-law Hugh (Dennis Quaid) that she's twice done the improvisational acting exercises that he is shown doing in *Playing By Heart.* We watch Hugh going into bars on different evenings to strike up conversations with complete strangers. He is supposed to make up a story about himself on the spot and get the person he's speaking with to believe it. As Hugh does this over ten evenings, he's being observed by a woman who is his improv monitor. So, again: actress Joan has gone through these same exercises two times. Which means she is very practiced in meeting people she doesn't know and getting them to believe things about her that aren't true. That's why I don't believe in Harry.
*Playing By Heart* is a filmic narrative of five apparently different stories that turn out to be one big story. So, since there are four other movies-within-the-movie, Jolie's interplay with Phillipe is unfortunately limited. Many who've seen *Playing By Heart* wish that the whole movie was only about Joan and Keenan. Many agree that Jolie's performance outshines all the other actors. And what actors! Sean Connery, Gena Rowland, Ellen Burstyn, Dennis Quaid, Madeline Stowe, Gillian Anderson, Jon Stewart...
Well, like I said, I don't think of Jolie's performance as a performance. I'm just glad I met Joan. Who by the way, is nicknamed Jo-jo by her Dad. Jo-jolie played her way right into my heart.
Summary of Playing By Heart
A sexy, romantic comedy about modern couples coming together in funny and unexpected ways, PLAYING BY HEART features an amazing cast of hot stars! Paul (Sean Connery -- FINDING FORRESTER) and Hannah (Gena Rowlands -- THE MIGHTY) discover that even after 40 years of marriage, they can still learn some very surprising things about each other! Meredith (Gillian Anderson -- THE X-FILES) is a serious theatre director who isn't looking for a relationship ... but has one looking for her in the person of the funny, persistent Trent (Jon Stewart -- JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK)! Then there's Joan (Angelina Jolie -- TOMB RAIDER) and Keenan (Ryan Phillippe -- GOSFORD PARK), young people searching for love in an L.A. club scene where the rules of dating seem to change every night! A witty, charming motion picture that critics loved -- you, too, will fall for this seductive treat!This amiably amorphous comedy-drama about a myriad of articulate and witty people pondering the meaning of love was originally titled Dancing About Architecture. As one of the lovelorn puts it, in trying to explain the elusive nature of desire, "Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." However, with the way the characters in Willard Carroll's film talk, it sounds like they could dance a samba around Frank Lloyd Wright. This undiscovered gem doesn't have a particular destination in mind, as it weaves in and out of the stories of its high-profile ensemble, but it does offer some hilarious, sharp dialogue and quiet surprises. Carroll focuses his film on four couples, all in one way or another battling with the problems of relationships, ranging from long-marrieds (Gena Rowlands and Sean Connery) to Gen-X club-hoppers (Angelina Jolie and Ryan Phillippe). Ostensibly, part of the film is invested in the mystery of how all these characters are interrelated, but keen viewers will be able to discern the connections among everyone. It's the uniformly excellent performances, though, that make Playing by Heart compulsively watchable. Most striking, surprisingly enough, are Jolie and Phillippe, the youngest members of the cast who reveal heretofore hidden depths of talent. Jolie in particular increases her already-soaring stock as an actress. Equally impressive are Gillian Anderson and Jon Stewart, who transcend their yuppie personas in their awkward enactment of the timeless dating rituals. Other cast members, including Dennis Quaid, Anthony Edwards, Ellen Burstyn, Jay Mohr, and the always luminous Madeleine Stowe, are quite good, though saddled with story lines that are occasionally less than compelling. The only complaint you'll have is that once everyone's connections are revealed, you'll wish this cast had more of an opportunity to interact. The journey toward the film's bittersweet end, however, is marvelous in and of itself. --Mark Englehart
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