Say No More: Chatters of the 'Heart' By Rita Kempley Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 22, 1999

Jon Stewart tries to cook up some romance with Gillian Anderson in "Playing by Heart." (Miramax) Director: Willard Carroll Cast: Gillian Anderson; Ellen Burstyn; Sean Connery; Anthony Edwards; Angelina Jolie; Jay Mohr; Ryan Phillipe; Dennis Quaid; Gena Rowlands; Jon Stewart; Madeleine Stowe Running Time: 2 hours Profanity, sexuality and adult themes

Modeled on such Robert Altman movies as "Ready to Wear" and "Short Cuts," Willard Carroll's project looks at contemporary mores through multiple characters and story lines. Unfortunately, Carroll's protagonists are seldom as intriguing as Altman's, nor are his observations as insightful. In a perfect world, the writer-director would be penning greeting cards instead of two-hour movies.

Set in the trendiest of Los Angeles locales, the movie is made up of six mini-dramedies, only one of which feels remotely genuine. The first is a stagey pas de deux with Sean Connery as a loving husband and Gena Rowlands as his devoted wife. The two are about to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary when they are reminded of a past indiscretion.

In the second, Gillian Anderson, as a sour, pouty divorcee, plays hard to get with Jon Stewart, a terrific guy who remains in persistent suit of Anderson's neurotic grump. A third finds a follicly impaired nonentity played by Anthony Edwards seeking something more than casual sex from Madeleine Stowe's straying wife. It generates as much heat as the average lightning bug.

The least effective, most mawkish story line concerns a nobler love between an anguished mother (Ellen Burstyn) and her son, (Jay Mohr) who is gay and dying – none too convincingly – of AIDS. The scene's so patently false that there isn't a moist eye in the house when Mom tearfully sings her child a final lullaby.

Dennis Quaid, who works without a partner here, adds an unexpectedly offbeat element as a barfly who always gets too skunked to take advantage of his ingenious pickup lines. Rowlands and Connery add class, Anderson and Stewart a dash of sass, but Angelina Jolie, a radiant ingenue from HBO's "Gia," overshadows the lot in yet another story line. She plays a hilariously hip club girl in relentless pursuit of a reluctant boy with blue hair (Ryan Phillippe).

Of all the couples, only Jolie and her smoldering screen amore are "Playing by Heart." Jolie, as a self-centered chatterbox, can't stop talking, it's true, but Phillippe can't stop listening, either. He even admits that he can't wait to hear what this funny, good-hearted girl will say next.

If the writer-director had cut 30 minutes and focused on this pulse-quickening pair and their story, which involves transformation and real sacrifice, the movie might have made the Earth move, architecture dance and hearts sing. Someday he'll regret it, maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but soon . . . In the meantime, could somebody please pass the nitroglycerin pills?