Playing by Heart (1998)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

To my surprise ''Playing by Heart'' was in fact a good movie.I saw it with my wife and we both liked it. Although we have seen the story - or should I say stories - before, but none of it is ever trite or offensive. It's all played out with such grace and nuance that even it's somewhat conventional ending is welcomed. The acting is well-acted and it is almost impossible not to like the long list of characters.Playing By heart is seriously playing by Skill. It is emotional,sensational,funny, and just the right movie for a bad day. A true feel-good film that shows us a sweet (but still realistic) picture about the many sides of love.

Willard Carroll's feel-good 'Playing By Heart' is charming and funny. It follows a number of heartbroken characters: a mother and her dying son (Ellen Burstyn and Jay Mohr), a married elderly couple (Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands), a childless wife (Madeleine Stowe) having an affair with a minister, a barsurfing man (Dennis Quaid) who fabricates stories, a relationship-burnout designer (Gillian Anderson) forcing herself to resist the charms of an architect (Jon Stewart) and a sassy young woman (Angelina Jolie) and her failed attempts to win the heart of a young man (Ryan Fillipe) with a secret. While it is quite well shot and decently written, it is mainly the acting that stands out. As much of the film is a series of interactions, solid performances are required and all the actors at least do a good job. Connery, Rowlands, Burstyn and Anderson are excellent. They're a delight to watch. Stowe doesn't get much scope unfortunately. Quaid is hilarious. Stewart and Fillipe fit the bill. Jolie is adorable.On the flipside, I felt the ending was a little clichéd and a tad overdone. Overall, Carroll's film makes for a fine rainy day flick.

A slick tapestry of not-so-disparate lives touched by love and death. Willard Carroll writes just like he directs: for immediate impact only, without regard to the characters he's spotlighting in a scene or to what follows dramatically thereafter. He panders to an audience's base emotions, which sometimes leaves his follow-through seeming empty or halfhearted. After losing her son to AIDS, grieving Ellen Burstyn is invited to a neighbor's celebration, where she is greeted warmly and then forgotten about. Dennis Quaid improvises a phony life story to an all-seeing, all-knowing drag queen, who calls Quaid out on his lie and then disappears. Carroll isn't interested in his smartest creations--he's mainly after warm hugs and kisses (which we are flooded with near the end). Some may see the writer-director's proverbial third-act ribbon-wrapping as clever and uncanny, but nothing is really accomplished by crisscrossing the paths of these people...it's simply a writer's folly. Aside from the touching Burstyn story, it doesn't wash. ** from ****

This is a capsules movie, with a lot of stories tangled together.A precursor of "Babel" and much more memorable. If the script isn't a revolution, it has at least the quality to be credible and reveals in addition some surprises.If "Babel" is already behind with this issue, the wonderful cast leaves no more doubt: Connery, Jolie and Anderson: What a great bunch! It is really a rare movie when you finish a scene with a star, then start a new scene with a second star, and again with a third one! Finally, a simple and direct movie with the first treasure of Hollywood: its talents!