Verdict: A meandering mystery-drama-romance that never hits the right groove.

Details: Starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas. Rated R for brief violence, sexuality and profanity. 2 hours, 11 minutes.

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Review: It's not just the tickers that are random in "Random Hearts." It's the whole movie, which spends its painfully protracted running time in search of the right genre. Halfhearted whether as a love story, old-fashioned weeper, cop thriller or political drama, it flirts with several audiences before disappointing them all.

Harrison Ford, wearing a toilet-brush haircut, an earring and a stifled expression, plays District of Columbia internal affairs cop Dutch Van Den Broeck. He's supposed to be smart, but when his wife dies in a plane crash, it takes him 45 minutes of screen time to suss out what the audience already knows: She was flying to Miami with her lover, also killed in the crash, who happened to be the husband of New Hampshire congresswoman Kay Chandler (Kristin Scott Thomas).

The misleading trailers for the movie imply that there is some deeper mystery here that Dutch and Kay have to unlock. There isn't. Instead, Dutch becomes a borderline stalker, obsessing over his dead wife's secret life and forcing Kay to confront her husband's adultery as well. Out of this strange connection, romance blooms. Yawn.

Granted, the idea of forging new emotional bonds in the middle of personal tragedy is a rich one. But "Hearts" never taps beneath the surface. There's been some buzz about the hot, front-seat car sex between the leads, but the only thing of interest about it is that it's played by Ford and Thomas instead of a couple of awkward teenagers. The two actors never spark off each other, so the romance never seems persuasive.

This is the sort of movie that indicates the characters' gradual sexual awakening by having them walk through a colorful Miami nightclub. Ford and Thomas stare at tango dancers as though they were Martians or unicorns.

Directed by Sydney Pollack, who adds some welcome energy playing Kay's savvy campaign adviser, the movie throws in an arbitrary subplot involving Dennis Haysbert as a crooked cop. The purpose seems to be to pump up some artificial drama through occasional shouting matches and gunfire. The strong supporting cast mired in the molasses-slow proceedings includes Charles S. Dutton as Ford's fellow cop and Paul Guilfoyle and Bonnie Hunt as friends and supporters of Chandler.

Ford wanders through the movie using the same slightly bewildered expression, as if he mistakenly thought he were still playing the brain-damaged lead of "Regarding Henry." He's a blank, except for one choked burst of feeling during a rustic idyll with Thomas. The moment feels piercingly real, but it seems disconnected from anything else we've seen the actor do.

Though Thomas maintains a solid American accent, the British actress never sheds her elegant chilliness. It's a relief, after a lovemaking scene with Ford, when she jokingly asks him whether he's a Democrat. But it's too little, too late. "Random Hearts" can't get the viewer's heart to race, or to break.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service

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