PLAYING BY HEART

Release: December 1998 in theaters
Availability: VHS,

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Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Running time: 124 minutes

Box summary: Poignant and funny drama, Playing by Heart follows a group of people who varied generations and lifestyles as they search for love and conneciton in the contemporary Los Angeles. All of these people strangers, lovers, and family -- are transformed by a series of unsettling events that bring into focus just how elusive, complex, and occasionally miraculous love can be in the right circumstances

JSIA summary: Jon fans seem to be evenly split on loving this movie or hating this movie.

Fast-forward tip: All throughout.

Director: Willard Carroll

Writer: Willard Carroll

Credited cast:

Gillian Anderson
Ellen Burstyn
Sean Connery
Anthony Edwards
Angelina Jolie
Jay Mohr
Ryan Phillippe
Dennis Quaid
Gena Rowlands
Jon Stewart (Trent)
Madeleine Stowe

IMDb link.

Quotes:

"Jon Stewart and Gillian Anderson are also very good. She is a lonely theater director and he is a lonely architect. They have a natural unforced chemistry that you wouldn't expect from these two very different television personalities. Although their relationship in the script seems ill-conceived, their performances almost make up for it." Mike Salvati (mikesalvati@yahoo.com)

"They had already cast the entire movie, and this was the one guy who hadn't been cast yet," he recalls. "And they called up one night -- it happened very quickly -- just, 'Would you want to read for this?' I said, 'Sure.' Did. Boom. It was weird." (Byron Allen 6/5/99)

"I just thought that the script was a really interesting exploration of relationships [in] different generations," he explains. "It wasn't trite. It wasn't 'Listen, we've seen that on Love Boat every weekend.'" (Journal Now 1/28/99)

"I think they thought I was the caterer," he recalled. (Toronto Sun 1/31/99)

[On Gillian Anderson] "She was very cool," he says. "That was the great part. You're in a situation where you're supposed to be, uh, dating, so you have to establish that chemistry right off the bat. But it worked out great." (Jane 2/99)

He says that he dosen't identify with his character, "except, of course, that I am an architect." (Journal Now 1/28/99)

Last updated May 1, 2002 by Chaney.