 "a great old movie" | 2009-09-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: AIRM4ZMNY3CGO |
| if you're in the mood for a romance this movie has it covered for you. |
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 "Excessive Remake of a Classic Chestnut About a Shipboard Romance Ruled by Fate" | 2009-08-18 |
| - Reviewed By ed_uyeshima |
Directed by Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth), this overly revered 1957 romantic tearjerker has always felt bloated at 115 minutes given the slight story presented and repackaged by McCarey and co-scenarists Mildred Cram, Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart. The fact remains that the veteran director told the same tale in just 87 minutes back in 1939, and the extra half-hour feels like pure padding in the update. Moreover, the sentimental wash of the love story feels even more contrived on the grander scale of a full-color CinemaScope production. You certainly couldn't ask for stars more luminous than Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr at this point in Hollywood history, but their charms can only go so far in sustaining interest in their characters' burgeoning romance.
The familiar story goes like this. Traveling alone on a transatlantic ocean liner, playboy bon vivant Nickie Ferrante is trying to avoid public glare over his recent engagement to a prominent New York socialite. Onboard, he meets comely nightclub singer Terry McKay, who is also engaged and also traveling alone. The pair strikes sparks quickly, but a combination of guilt and gossipmongers keeps the would-be lovers apart. Things change considerably when they visit Nickie's kindly grandmother at one of the ports-o-call, and Terry sees his more sensitive side under the elderly woman's becalming influence. Needing to attend to their impending marriages, Nickie and Terry vow to reunite on top of the Empire State Building in six months' time. As anyone who has seen Sleepless in Seattle knows, fate intervenes, and their lives take a different route than either expected.
Grant is on cruise control as Nickie, exhibiting his debonair manner with easy assurance. His big moment of revelation in the final scene is the only time Grant shows something deeper in the character than a suave lover and a frustrated artist. As Terry, Kerr stands in the considerable shadow of Irene Dunne, whose natural élan and sparkling wit elevated the original to classic status. Another key difference is that while Dunne exhibited her own impressive singing talents, Kerr's voice is dubbed by Marni Nixon on Terry's two nightclub numbers. Still, Kerr manages to convey enough of her character's sharp sensibilities and romantic vulnerability, and the chemistry with Grant is very much in evidence here. Cathleen Nesbitt plays the Maria Ouspenskaya role of Grandmother Janou with twinkly, wizened charm, the same valedictory role Katharine Hepburn played in Warren Beatty's inferior 1994 remake. The rest of the supporting cast is purely incidental with special mention going to the avuncular Charles Watts playing an obnoxious passenger who follows the illicit pair without remorse.
The 2008 two-disc 50th Anniversary Edition DVD package seems excessive for anyone but the film's most devout fans. Disc One contains a pristine print of the film along with a perfunctory commentary track from film historian Joseph McBride with additional comments from Nixon, who shares her personal memories of the production. Disc Two has a number of featurettes starting with a pair of retrospective featurettes, one on Kerr, the other on Grant. Just before his death, screenwriter Peter Viertel reminisces about his wife Kerr, while Grant's widow Barbara does the same. The featurette on McCarey is more interesting in that it shows colleagues and film critics contributing their insight to his impressive body of work. Other shorts focus on producer Jerry Wald and the film's cinematography courtesy of Milton R. Krasner. The best extra is an AMC Backstory documentary on the film's production and legacy. Completing the package is vintage newsreel footage as well as a couple of photo galleries. For fans only. |
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 "Classic Tearjerker!" | 2009-08-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: AVMQ6LL1L1Q17 |
| Get the tissues ready! If you though P.S. I Love You was the best love story movie to be made, check out its predecessor! Cary Grant is at his dashing best as his character falls in love with a woman he meets on a ship. The romantic entanglements begin and laughter and tears abound as the two love birds try anything and everything to see each other again. According to AFI, this movie ranks as 5th on the list of 100 best love stories. Just throw the movie in the player and let the story live up to its glorious reputation. The story is timeless, the love is real, you won't be disappointed. |
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| "Grand, and tears, of course" | 2009-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: AQHL7BTZ6NET8 |
| This movie was wonderful, as we only had seen clips of it in "Sleepless in Seattle"...we enjoyed it from beginning to end and wish more movies were like this! |
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| "Thanks!" | 2009-06-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2G47FBF8Y7HOX |
The service was great and my thanks ,for the prompt service!
Robertkitch13 |
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| "Timeless indeed..." | 2009-06-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: ANCOMAI0I7LVG |
With Cary Grant's dapper charm and Deborah Kerr's elegance, one would have to be blind not to fall in love with this film's surface good looks, but what makes `An Affair to Remember' so unforgettable is that it reaches far below that surface to deliver a believable love story that embellishes the star's undeniable charisma.
In a word, `An Affair to Remember' is...memorable.
The film tells of playboy Nickie Ferrante who just so happens to be settling down. On a cruise he happens to meet Terry McKay, a charming woman who also happens to be settling down. The two are instantly attracted to one another, but Nickie's reputation has Terry attempting to avoid him. His charm is too much and before long they are spending a lot of time together, innocently at first, but it doesn't take long for genuine feelings to creep up within both parties. They try and separate themselves in order to remain true to their significant others, but their desire runs too deep and before the cruise has ended they have fallen in love. Wanting to be sure that this is the real thing, they decide to separate for six months (giving Nickie the opportunity to actually work for his catch in more ways than one) only to reunite on the Empire State Building.
But will they ever meet again?
The first half of the film is brilliantly fleshed out. This isn't your average `boy meets girl, falls in love, believe it or not' type story. The screenwriters (McCarey, Daves & Stewart) worked really hard to make the love affair between Nickie and Terry authentic and believable. You can see them falling in love, slowly but genuinely. The second half is not nearly as good as the first, but it is still good (don't think I'm putting it down any). With the two stars separated it lacks some of the first half's undeniable charm and appeal.
Grant, much like George Clooney, Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio, is often seen for his looks and charm before his acting talent, but here he is a brilliant mixture of elegance and human emotional complexity. He really understands how to reign in his charming demeanor for the films climax and portray a man scorned by something he doesn't quite understand. The coldness he demonstrates is without flaw. Deborah Kerr is marvelous here as well, matching Grant step for step in the films first half and then completely capturing her character's emotional dilemma in the films second half. Without her dedicated performance the finale would not have worked.
Oozing with sensual lavishness (is it just me or was that off screen kiss on the cruise ship one of the most beautifully captured displays of affection in all of cinematic history), `An Affair to Remember' gets it all right, and then some. It's charming, witty, alluring and touching; a film that will make you laugh, make you cry and make you fall in love. |
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