Carroll's milieu is resolutely middle class and the crises encountered all too predictable.

| Jun 18, 2012

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 7, 2011

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

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009

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.

| Jun 3, 2006

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

| Jun 3, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 19, 2002

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.

| Feb 14, 2001

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Mushy yet funny and intelligent, the beautifully executed new film Playing by Heart is an ideal romantic comedy-drama for a winter afternoon.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

[It's] n tune with the current trend toward movies that coddle the audience with reassuring sentiments.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

As a young scenemaker who keeps landing in one bad relationship after another, Jolie doesn't exactly avoid the pitfalls of the material she's given. But her performance is flabbergasting.

| Jan 1, 2000

It's much more enjoyable than this sort of date-movie thing normally is, and that success can mostly be credited to the big names populating the film.

| Jan 1, 2000

For all its artificiality, Playing by Heart percolates with an earnest charm.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Everyone has his or her moment, although it is the older folks (Connery and Rowlands) and the youngsters (Jolie and Phillippe) who come off best, giving affecting performances in roles that serve as generational bookends in the film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: C+ | Dec 30, 1998