Sydney Pollack: Random Hearts

There’s an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where Larry David – in hopes of winning back his wife Cheryl – agrees to do a reunion show for “Seinfeld.” While filming the show, Michael Richards is waiting to hear back from his doctor on whether or not he has Groats Disease, and he complains to Larry that he just doesn’t think he can be funny with this diagnosis hanging over his head. Larry tells him he knows a guy that has beaten Groats, and he’ll get him to talk to Richards about it. When Larry’s sidekick/moocher-that-won’t-leave Leon does Larry a favor by pretending to be that someone, he convinces Richards that all he needs to do is wear his lucky hat, and the Groats will go away. So, the next scene they rehearse for the reunion show, Richards (as Kramer) is wearing this ridiculous hat. Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus break character and laugh hysterically because of how ridiculous it looks, advising him that he can’t wear the hat because people don’t want to see this version of Kramer, they want to see the guy they remember; the guy with the wacky hair.

Why did I just start a review of Sydney Pollack’s downer (in more ways than one) of a movie Random Hearts with this example from David’s show? Because Harrison Ford has this earring that he wears throughout Random Hearts that is so incredibly distracting that it reminded me of the conversation Seinfeld and Dreyfus have with Richards about his hat. This is not the Harrison Ford I remember. I know a silly little thing like an earring shouldn’t take me out of the movie, but I just couldn’t help myself: scene after scene I found myself paying more attention to Ford’s ear than the other stuff happening on the screen.

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Sydney Pollack: Sabrina

Coming out in the same year as the Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin fairy tale The American President, Sydney Pollack released his own fairy tale, Sabrina, a remake of the Billy Wilder classic starring Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, and Audrey Hepburn. Reiner and Pollack’s sought to make films that stood out as a stark contrast in an era of cynicism and conglomerates; they are escapist films about characters that escape themselves into fantasy worlds. They are both great examples of films that elicit the kind of response where one waxes nostalgic about how, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to." But I’m here to talk about Sabrina, and to watch Sabrina is to be absorbed by a film where time simply melts away. To watch Sabrina is also to watch a film where we understand that everything depends upon the performances. The story – an ugly duckling fairy tale with a “once upon a time…” opening narration – is familiar, the results of the story are definitely familiar, and the tone – and how Pollack will visually convey that tone – is also familiar to anyone that’s either seen the original Sabrina, seen a Sydney Pollack movie, or knows of Pollack’s love for ‘40s/’50s cinema. It’s a touch on the long side at 126 minutes, and even though the film feels like its spinning its wheels in the third act, I’m never bored by the film because I just love spending time with these characters and the extravagant milieu they inhabit. It reminds me of Tootsie in that it’s pure cinematic comfort food.

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