![]() ![]() Tom Courtenay) is a great actor, giving a great appeal to it, but actually the movie gave him nothing great to do. Wendy Hughes) wasnt up to all of this, not to mention a slight of silliness in her present apart, lacking any possible chemistry between her and (Falk). His best scenes were the ones with the female lead, where his glamour was all over the screen to the extent that he needed no talking at all to express. He brought so much charisma and talent into it, which reminded me of the kind of roles that (Humphrey Bogart) would have played if he lived longer. Or maybe they put you in the mood.Peter Falk) added a certain flavor to the role.Ĭolumbos coat in the TV, he dedicated to keep the same wittiness yet as a thief, hustler, gangster in the movies (The Brinks Job, Big Trouble, Vibes, Cookie.). You have to be in the right mood to enjoy movies like this. Then came " Sleepless in Seattle" and " Only You" and now "Love Affair," all movies about nice people getting into goofy misunderstandings because they love one another so much. Women characters in movies were more likely to stab you than kiss you. Until recently the love story seemed to be a threatened genre in Hollywood. But the movie toys with that, and with us, in delicately written dialogue that allows them to say, and not say, everything that needs to be said, and needs not to be said. Yes, their happiness stands to be destroyed because both of them are pussy-footing around, and not saying what needs to be said. Yes, there is a monumental and tragic misunderstanding between Mike and Terry. This is one of the few Idiot Plots that works. One word, and all the misunderstanding would be at an end, so of course that one word is never spoken.įunny thing. Watching it, I realized it was a classic example of what Ebert's Little Movie Glossary identifies as the Idiot Plot that's a plot that works only because everybody in it behaves like an idiot. The rest of the movie is a slow edging up to the big final scene, the emotionally fraught meeting between Mike and Terry. The director, Glenn Gordon Caron, is better known for hard-edged material like " Clean and Sober," but maybe that's because there's not much work in Hollywood these days for filmmakers who still believe in the Semi-Obligatory Lyrical Interlude. It's as if nature itself is a co-conspirator in the romance. There are scenes in the movie - including Beatty and Bening walking across a vast, lush green meadow - that are so radiant your jaw drops open. Part of the magic of the Hepburn scenes is set up by the location, and Conrad Hall's cinematography. Yet the magnificent spirit is still there, and the romantic fire, and she's right for this eccentric old woman, living alone in unimaginable splendor, and feeling an instant connection with the young woman her nephew has brought home. She has been old for a long time (she is in her 80s) but this is the first time she has also looked small and frail. Hepburn's scenes steal, and almost stop, the show. Sure, Bening likes the guy, but she distrusts him, and it's not until she sees the real Mike through the eyes of his aunt that she can take him seriously as a potential partner. What's interesting about the screenplay, written by Robert Towne and Beatty, is that the movie's key turning point takes place, not between Beatty and Bening, but between Bening and Hepburn. To say that these are the sorts of things that only happen in the movies would be an understatement. They Meet Cute on a flight across the Pacific, and when their plane develops engine trouble and makes an emergency landing on a tiny atoll, they continue their journey aboard a screwy Russian cruise ship, before landing in Tahiti, where Beatty's legendary aunt ( Katharine Hepburn) lives in a magnificent house on the side of the hill. The story stars Beatty as Mike Gambril, a playboy sportscaster who is engaged to a millionaire talk show hostess.īening plays Terry McKay, who is working as an interior designer for a zillionaire ( Pierce Brosnan). And when the chemistry between them really seems to be working, no wonder: This is one of the most famously happy couples in Hollywood. When Warren Beatty tells Annette Bening, "You know, I've never been faithful to anyone in my whole life," you have the strangest feeling these words might have passed between them on an earlier occasion. Part of the effect may be the teasing parallels with real life. ![]()
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