Playing by Heart
If romance is a mystery, there's only one way to figure it out.
If romance is a mystery, there's only one way to figure it out.
Drama
-
1998
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Eleven articulate people work through affairs of the heart in L.A. Paul produces Hannah's TV cooking show. Mark is dying of AIDS. Men have scalded Meredith so she rebuffs Trent's charm, but he persists. The trendy, prolix Joan tries to pull the solitary Keenan into her orbit. An adulterous couple meet at hotels for evening sex. Hugh tells tall tales, usually tragic, to women in bars.
Director:
Cast:
Similar
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Details
Rated:
R
Runtime:
121 min
Release date:
30 Dec 1998
Country:
US
Languages:
English
Budget:
$20,000,000
Revenue:
$3,970,078
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination
Top Critics Reviews
rotten:
Carroll's characters spend so much time talking, albeit intelligently, that the connections they make seem peculiarly synthetic.
– Lael Loewenstein,
Variety,
26 Mar 2009
rotten:
All of these characters are more interesting when things are going badly for them than when the tide has turned, and Carroll's determination to make the final reel an extended bout of audience tummy tickling is disappointingly conventional.
– Derek Adams,
Time Out,
3 Jun 2006
fresh:
This charming romantic comedy with a Los Angeles setting cuts between seemingly unconnected miniplots the way some Robert Altman movies do.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
3 Jun 2006
fresh:
If Playing by Heart is the kind of film that used to be known as a "woman's picture," it certainly provides more emotional nourishment than most other mainstream movies generate these days.
– Kevin Thomas,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb 2001
fresh:
For all its artificiality, Playing by Heart percolates with an earnest charm.
– Stephen Holden,
New York Times,
1 Jan 2000