Great Film overall

Expected more

Captivating movie !

Best movie ever!

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.

I found this DVD whilst I was trying to find something cheap to make up the full price of my Father's Day present - a gift voucher on Amazon. I had never heard of the movie, and it would not have mattered if I had continued in my ignorance! A frightfully over emotional 'American' movie that presumably felt it could follow the TV success of a show like '30 Somethings' and do the multi-strand jump cutting of 'Babel' with everything coming together at the end. Well, it didn't work. You assemble a great cast of pros - the Weinsteins looking for a left field hit that might pick up some Oscar traction - and make an auteur film about love that is supposed to make you feel better!! Uh, no, I was depressed fairly soon in - what with the ridiculous Dennis Quaid strand talking about running over his wife and child (yes!), and a young man dying, a la 'Philadelphia' of AIDS!! Talk about cheap shots and sentimentality that would have made John Ford blush in shame! The storyline is of various couples of various ages ( and quickly it becomes clear are all part of one family) talking about love, trying to find love, and actually having affairs. I'm afraid it loses credibility because several of the actresses post-coital have very carefully wrapped sheets or duvets around themselves demonstrating a complete lack of spontaneity (although that is the point I suppose, as the film is all too much talk and cod philosophising about love to be really credible. There is interest in the Ryan Phillippe/Angelina Jolie and Sean Connery/Gena Rowlands elements, but because of the too many strands, even these are rushed, overwrought and concluded far too quickly. A pity because they might have made a half decent movie. But ultimately the film is crushed by its own sense of po-faced theatricality and verbiage - yet again Americans taking themselves too seriously. The tagline called it a romantic comedy with a twist - yes, the twist was it was not very funny at all (the guy with Aids dies in his mother's arms on full screen - ho, ho!). Hoiw did this ever get made????

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!

I zapped by this movie and came upon one of the first scenes. I immediately was fascinated, and all those famous actors!?! I never heard of this movie, what's up with that? So i got nailed to the TV-screen. All those people's lives were very recognizable and again strange, it was moving to watch. A big fan of the great Sean, the sexy Angelina, the mysterious 'Scully' and some others i know as good actors, i was almost compelled to watch this. A love story between already married people, a search for love by singles, the love of mother and child. Love contains death also, because we care for each other. And that was so outstanding played in this movie. Even when i'm giving my opinion i'm filled with laughter, thrill and tears. This is one of every actor, whom put so much believable performance in Played by heart, one of their best movies I let out a tear or two and never wanted to forget this most beautiful movie I had ever seen.