Romcoms (2)

LETTERS TO JULIET - Leftover from last Christmas, this 2010 romcom finally gets taken out of its case. I am not one for chick-flicks per se, though I liked THE PROPOSAL (which I saw initially on a flight) and IT'S COMPLICATED wasn't too unbearable. This one though had the attraction of Vanessa Redgrave reunited on-screen with [her husband] Franco Nero and all that Italian countryside. As such, it delivers. The plot is probably a bit too saccharine, as we follow Sophie (Amanda Seyfried, MAMMA MIA) from the "New Yorker" to Verona where she discovers Juliet's balcony and the letters left which are replied to, and guess what - she finds a letter from 1957 when a brick falls out of the wall, so of course she replies to it. Gael Garcia Bernal is rather wasted as her workaholic boyfriend - then Christopher Egan turns up with his grand-mother Claire (Redgrave) in tow and they decide to track down the lover fate had separated her from 50 years ago. There are though 74 Lorenzo Bartolini's in the area .... it is a pleasant moment though when Nero rides up on his white horse - and it continues exactly as one would expect and wish. Directed by Gary Winick. Nice to see a good late role for Redgrave [like Julie Christie with AWAY FROM HER,] looking well and natural in her early 70s. (The 1969 Redgrave-Nero arthouse eurotrash A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY is reviewed at Redgrave label).

IT’S COMPLICATED – I was not enamoured with Nancy Meyers’ SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE and I just did not want to see THE HOLIDAY, so presumably here is more of the same in IT’S COMPLICATED, which has Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin who have been divorced meeting again at their son’s college graduation and rekindling their relationship as he determines to win her back. He though has remarried with young children but it is not working out, and she also starts to get involved with architect Steve Martin, so yes, it’s complicated. If one likes seeing rich people (she is the wealthy owner of a bakery chain) fool around, and smoke pot, then I suppose this is the kind of thing you would like. Meryl seems to be enjoying herself and laughs a lot, at least Martin is low-key here, and Baldwin is the best thing as he has turned into a droll comedian with no vanity at all. I suppose it is a superior romcom with one laugh out loud scene with the webcams (above).

50 years on: "our huckleberry friend" is back .....

Of course,she has never been away - BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S must be the one 50 year old film [apart from PSYCHO and SOME LIKE IT HOT] that everyone knows and still watch regularly - well, all those into romcoms anyway. It is surely the prototype romantic movie for those who grew up after the classic golden age of the 30s and 40s. It is endlessly stylish too, Audrey and that black dress and accessories must be as iconic now as anything by Monroe or Jimmy Dean. [Blake Edwards was certainly a high in the early 60s, I also love DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (50 years old next year) and the first PINK PANTHER.] Capote saw his friend Marilyn Monroe in the role of Holly Golightly, I see Kay Kendall (if she had lived), but Audrey it is and she is perfect too, and I love Patricia Neal as the "very stylish girl" waving her chequebook at writer/gigolo Paul Varjak (Peppard) - there is of course a whole gay subtext here, but it works on every level, and then there is Mancini's score and that song... it is everything we feel about that optimistic early '60s and being young in a big city.

Capote's original novella was given away free in a newspaper here (in the UK) a while ago and it was interesting re-reading it. It has the perfect bittersweet ending of Holly going off to South America and they do not find the cat. The narrator keeps searching though and finds the cat one afternoon - now belonging to someone else, curled up in a window in a nice house. But of course in the movie we want that soaring choir singing "Moon River" as Cat is found and squeezed between Audrey and Peppard (did any couple ever look as good in the rain?). It is also of course one of the great New York movies - but words are superfluous... the images say it all, it's a movie of great moments and dialogue to savour. Roll it again .... it is also now back in selected cinemas in a new reissue by the BFI [British Film Institute].