Playing by Heart Reviews

Carroll's characters spend so much time talking, albeit intelligently, that the connections they make seem peculiarly synthetic.

Full Review

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.

Full Review

This charming romantic comedy with a Los Angeles setting cuts between seemingly unconnected miniplots the way some Robert Altman movies do.

Full Review

A very slight and inoffensive movie. It's a lot like L.A. itself, all surface, soothing and warm.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The brightest spot belongs to Angelina Jolie, who is so compelling to watch she has chemistry with the furniture.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Playing By Heart tries hard and sometimes succeeds -- and Jolie is terrific.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

Nothing more than merely watchable film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10

The dozen or so lead characters of Playing By Heart fear silence the way Biblical people feared locusts.

Full Review | Original Score: D

An underrated, dreamy drama about love, lust and infidelity amongst inter-connected Los Angeleans. Jolie rises to the challenge.

| Original Score: 4/5

The lack of time gives the last reel a fakey, tied-up-with-a-bow feeling, but good performances and a good script make this an enjoyable little romance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

An intriguing patchwork of relationships converges into a portrait of modern love in Playing By Heart, a wry, satisfying emotional saga.

Full Review

A heavily mixed bag; high points come with Jon Stewart's sweet courtship of Gillian Anderson and a brilliant turn from a young unknown named Angelina Jolie.

| Original Score: 3/5

The script's overall artifice, combined with a convenient burst of "I love yous" and an all-too-obvious surprise ending, work to undermine an otherwise interesting concept.

Full Review

Willard Carroll's cleverly interconnected (sometimes annoyingly so) tale of six different relationships is populated by a horde of big-name stars...

Full Review

A well-scripted ensemble drama about eleven people in Los Angeles searching for love.

Full Review

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.

Full Review

The dialogue makes the episodes diverting a fair amount of the time; it also disguises a script that has virtually nothing interesting or new to say about relationships.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

What a cast! What a waste!

Full Review

Unfortunately as bland as its forgettable title,

Full Review

An always-entertaining and fairly thoughtful film on the subject of love, and how everyone hopes for it in one way or another.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4